^ 


BV  4515  .06  1839 
Onesimus,  b.  1768? 
The  doctrine  of  the  new 
birth 


ikn    He.wSor> 


THS 


DOCTRINE 


THE    NEW    BIRTH, 


EXEMPLIFIED  IX  THE  LIFE  AND  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE  OF 


ONESIMUS, 


FROM  THE  ELEVENTH  TO  THE  TWEXTT-FIFTH  TEAR  OF  HIS  AGE,  OR  FROM 
THE  TEAR  1779  TO  1793,  INCLUSIVE. 


Also,  The  visions  which  he  saw  concerning  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  in  the  State 
of  Pennsylvania,  in  the  days  when  George  Washington  was  the  President  of 
the  United  States  of  North  America,  and  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ,  1792.  The  visions  with  several  of  the  special  events  of  his  life 
shall  be  illustrated  with  twenty  plates,  and  the  whole  designed  as  a  defence  of 
the  truth  of  the  Gospel,  and  proof  of  the  immortality  of  the  human  soul. 
Written  in  twenty  letters,  and  dedicated  to  Elder  Joseph  Maylin. 

Onesimus. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

PRINTED   BY  WILLIAM  F.   RACKLIFF. 

Corner  of  George  and  Swan  wick  streets. 


1839. 


Entered  according  lo  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1839,  by 

John    Hewson, 

In  the  Clerk's  office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  Eastern  District  of  Pennsylvania. 


No.  1.  The  ship' Perseverance,  commanded  by  Captain  Onesimus, 
leaving  the  shores  of  time,  with  her  sails  loose,  and  anchor 
weighed  ;  bound  on  a  voyage  of  discovery,  in  search  of  the 
immortality  of  the  human  soul,  and  with  a  full  determination, 
like  Columbus,  to  convince  himself  of  the  existence  of  ano- 
ther and  better  workl  than  this,  as  a  counterpoise  to  this  world 
of  sin  and  death. 

No.  2.  Captain  Onesimus,  viewing  through  the  telescope  of  faith, 
the  bright  and  morning  star  of  immortality. 

No.  3.  Satan,  the  God  of  this  sinful  world,  and  the  Prince  of 
darkness,  standing  on  the  lantern  of  the  light-house  of  the 
age  of  reason  and  philosophy,  taking  a  view  of  Onesimus, 
casting  oft*  his  fealty  to  the  Prince  of  darkness,  and  leaving 
the  shores  of  time. 

No.  4.  Christ,  the  bright  and  morning  star. 


"  Shall  a  trumpet  be  blown  in  the  city,  and  the  people  not  be 
afraid  ?  Shall  there  be  evil  in  a  city,  and  the  Lord  hath  not  done 
it?  Surely  the  Lord  God  will  do  nothing,  but  he  revealeth  his 
secrets  unto  his  servants  the  prophets.  The  Lion  hath  roared, 
who  will  not  fear?  The  Lord  God  hath  spoken,  who  can  but 
prophesy." — Amos,  iii  chap.  6,  7,  8  verses. 


Dear  Sir: — In  hope  that  this  little  work  may  have  a  tendency 
to  promote  the  cause  of  our  common  Lord  and  Saviour,  Jesus 
Christ,  I  have  presumed  to  commend  the  following  letters  to  your 
patronage,  and  humbly  subscribe  myself  your  affectionate  brother 
in  the  bonds  of  the  gospel,  ONESIMUS.         1839. 

To  Elder  Joseph  Maylin,  of  Philadelphia. 

The  Watch-word  to  be  used  on  board  the  ship  Perseverance, 
during  the  voyage  to  the  shores  of  immortality, — "Marvel  not  that 
I  said  unto  thee,  ye  must  be  born  again.  The  wind  bloweth  where 
it  listeth,  and  thou  hearest  the  sound  thereof,  but  canst  tell  whence 
it  cometh,  and  whither  it  goeth  :  so  is  every  one  that  is  born  of 
the  spirit." — John,  3,  7,  8. 

Letter  I.  contains  the  first  serious  impressions  that  were  made 
on  his  mind,  by  a  sermon  preached  from  the  xxiv.  Psalm,  in  1779, 
"Who  is  the  king  of  glory?"  and  the  gloomy  state  of  his  mind, 
at  seeing  three  persons  executed,  and  the  awful  temptations  which 
followed  him  to  about  the  fifteenth  year  of  his  age. 


DOCTRINE 

OF   THE   NEW  BIRTH. 


LETTER   I. 

Dear  Sir  : — I  shall  pass  by  the  childhood  and  early 
youth  of  Onesimus,  believing  with  the  wisest  of  the  He- 
brew sages,  (Solomon,)  that  they  are  days  which  only 
present  weakness  and  vanity,  and  begin  where  the  Lord 
in  his  wisdom  and  mercy  began  with  him,  to  call  him  out 
of  the  horrible  pit,  into  which  Adam  by  his  transgression 
cast  the  whole  race  of  mankind. 

The  first  serious  impressions  which,  he  at  this  distance 
of  time  can  distinctly  recollect,  were  made  on  his  mind 
in  the  summer  of  1779  :  under  a  sermon  delivered  by 
Elder  Spraut,  pastor  of  the  Second  Presbyterian  church 
of  Philadelphia,  from  the  xxiv.  Psalm,  "Who  is  the  king 
of  Glory  ?"  This  interesting  discourse  drew  tears  from 
his  eyes,  and  for  a  season  made  some  serious  impression 
on  his  mind.  The  which  led  him  for  a  few  weeks  to  be 
very  reserved  in  his  words,  and  cautious  in  his  conduct, 
so  much  so,  that  it  soon  elicited  the  attention  of  some  of 
his  father's  family,  and  especially  a  young  female,  who 
did  at  times  exclaim,  "  that  if  he  went  on  with  his  seri- 
ousness much  longer,  he  would  become  a  Presbyterian 
minister."  And  to  this  outward  change  of  his  conversa- 
tion, he  added  the  frequent  use  of  the  Lord's  prayer, 
night  and  day,  whither  he  was  in  his  father's  house  or  am- 
bulating the  city  streets.  But  it  being  in  the  midst  of  the 
revolutionary  war,  and  his  father  but  lately  returned 
from  being  a  prisoner  among  the  British  at  New  York, 
and  was  at  this  time  engaged  in  keeping  a  house  or 
rendezvous  to  recruit  men  for  the  shipping  in  the  port 


of  Philadelphia;  and  at  the  same  time  was  a  captain  of 
a  company  of  militia.  So  that  there  was  nothing  to  be 
seen  or  heard  of  at  home,  but  the  sound  of  the  drum 
and  fife,  or  seen  but  fire-arms,  colours,  and  other  war- 
like articles  ;  and  not  a  single  person  to  his  knowledge 
in  the  family  at  that  time,  wTho  thought  of  God,  or 
experienced  any  concern  for  their  soul's  immortality, 
and  as  those  warlike  preparations  were  daily  passing 
before  his  view,  when  in  process  of  time,  all  his  seri- 
ousness, with  the  almost,  hourly  repetition  of  the  Lord's 
prayer,  soon  were  banished  from  his  thoughts. 

When  his  legal  fears,  watching,  and  praying,  simul- 
taneously spread  their  ephemeral  wings,  and  took  their 
flight,  and  left  his  mind  in  Egyptian  darkness,  without 
the  smallest  ray  of  spiritual  light,  so  that  all  his  convic- 
tions, and  legal  resolution  to  serve  God,  was  succeeded 
by  the  dark  clouds  of  sin  and  unbelief,  and  his  person 
surrounded  with  a  dense  atmosphere  of  ignorance,  both 
of  the  nature  and  character  of  God,  so  that  not  a  single 
ray  of  light  passed  through  the  impenetrable  gloom. 

But  the  Lord,  who  is  rich  in  mercy,  had  not  given 
up  this  young  sinner  as  a  forlorn  hope,  and  our  dear 
old  shipmate  will  bear  in  his  mind  that  our  countersign, 
or  watch-word,  on  board  the  ship  Perseverance,  during 
the  voyage,  was  taken  from  the  log-book  of  Captain 
John  Gospel.  The  wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  so 
that  when  sailing  at  one  point  of  the  compass,  does  not 
bring  a  sinner  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth;  the  Lord 
will  send  a  mackerel  breeze  from  another  quarter  of  the 
providential  heavens,  to  re-alarm  a  poor  sinful  boy,  and 
cause  him  finally  to  flee  the  wrath  to  come. 

Therefore  in  the  year  1780  or  1781,  we  do  not  now 
distinctly  remember  which,  four  coloured  and  one 
white  person  descended  from  within  the  British  lines  in 
the  vicinity  of  New  York,  and  came  down  the  Dela- 
ware in  a  boat,  within  less  than  three  miles  of  the  city 
of  Philadelphia,  and  robbed  a  farm-house  belonging  to 
one  William  Ball,  of  some  silver  plate,  and  other  valu- 
able articles  not  recollected.  But  soon  after  the  rob- 
bery, they  were  advertised  in  the  public  papers  of  those 
days,  and  a  reward  offered  for  their  apprehension,  and 


they  were  taken  in  some  part  of  East  Jersey,  as  they 
were  returning  to  the  British  lines  with  their  plunder, 
and  brought  to  Philadelphia,  and  tried  by  the  then 
existing  laws  of  the  state  of  Pennsylvania,  and  the  whole 
of  them  condemned  to  die. 

And  when  the  day  of  their  execution  arrived,  Onesi- 
mus  being  about  twelve  years  of  age,  went  with  the 
multifarious  throng  to  the  place  of  execution,  and  as 
the  five  men  were  sitting  on  their  coffins  under  the 
gallows,  two  of  the  coloured  persons  received  a  pardon 
from  the  Governor  of  the  State,  and  the  other  three 
where  launched  into  that  world  where  poor  mourning 
Job  dolorously  cries,  "There  the  wicked  cease  from 
troubling ;  and  there  the  weary  be  at  rest ;  there  the 
prisoners  rest  together  ;  they  hear  not  the  voice  of  the 
oppressor.  The  small  and  the  great  are  there,  and  the 
servant  is  free  from  his  master."  Shipmate,  how  most 
solemnly  sublime  is  this  dolorous  canticle  of  human  wo  : 
and  here,  with  poor  Job,  let  us  for  a  moment  view  man- 
kind on  the  greatest  acme  of  earthly  glory,  both  in 
church  and  state,  and  elevate  our  minds  so  as  to  behold 
the  several  clouds  of  the  restless  ambition  of  the  vain 
sons  of  men,  after  conquest,  and  empire;  we  would  with 
humble  difference  ask  them,  where  is  the  Nimrod  of 
of  the  bible,  with  all  the  great  and  lessor  sattelites  of 
conquest  and  dominion,  which,  from  age  to  age,  have 
been  revolving  round  this  wandering  comet  after  earthly 
power.  Truly,  old  shipmate,  we  are  justified  in  sing- 
ing with  Job.  The  oppressor,  and  the  oppressed  rest 
together,  in  one  physical  and  common  level.  And  for 
a  farther  solution  of  Job's  canticle,  let  the  mournful  page 
of  history,  which  groans  and  weeps  blood  at  every  pa- 
ragraph it  records,  join  the  chorus  with  Job,  and  then 
view  what  folly  the  past  history  of  the  world  presents 
to  the  serious  and  reflecting  mind.  Shipmate,  it  seems 
somewhat  difficult  to  find  an  allegory,  symbol,  figure, 
or  type,  to  set  forth  the  foliy  of  designing,  and  ambiti- 
tious  men,  in  a  just  and  true  point  of  light.  But  when 
Onesimus  was  on  shore,  and  standing  for  a  few  moments 
at  the  foot  of  a  cataract,  and  viewing  the  effect  which 
the  rushing  and  impetuous  water  made  on  the  face  of 


the  waters,  in  the  basin  below,  which  would  suddenly 
create  millions  of  those  little  airy  castles  on  the  surface 
of  the  gliding  waters,  and  as  he  stood  and  viewed  them, 
he  perceived  they  were  of  various  dimensions,  and  here 
and  there  a  solitary  bubble  arose,  like  Saul,  king  of  Israel, 
a  head  and  shoulder  taller  than  the  most  of  his  watery 
brethren,  so  that  when  the  rays  of  light  darted  these 
coruscation  through  these  transparent  walls,  which 
would  for  a  few  moments  adorn  those  airy  temples,  with 
some  of  those  tints  which  are  seen  in  the  rainbow,  and 
here  and  there  one  of  those  watery  dooms,  would  out- 
live, and  for  a  few  moments  outshine  their  lesser  water) 
brethren. 

But  in  a  few  moments  more  he  viewed  them,  and  ex- 
claimed, the  small  and  the  great  are  there,  and  the  son^ 
of  men  slip  their  wind,  and  like  their  watery  type,  seek 
in  their  parent  element,  the  earth,  a  physical  and  com- 
mon level,  and  the  servant  is  free  from  his  master,  and 
the  slave  is  freed  from  the  power  of  the  tyrant.  And 
as  he  stood  cogitating  in  his  mind  about  the  water  bub- 
bles, as  a  natural  mirror,  which  showed  him  the  variety 
of  the  human  race,  with  all  their  momentary  and  dis- 
tinguishable size,  and  shade  of  colour*  such  as  conquest, 
dominion,  power,  honour,  earthly  glory,  riches,  birth, 
and  the  wisdom  of  this  world,  all  gliding  away  on  the 
passing  waters  of  time,  and  forever  lost  in  the  basin  be- 
low, when  he  said  to  himself,  what  a  poor  insignificant 
being  is  man,  or  in  the  language  of  the  royal  saint,  what 
is  man,  that  thou  art  mindful  of  him  ?  And  the  more  so 
if  the  doctrine  of  the  bible  is  not  true,  as  many  of  the 
great  and  wise  men  of  this  world  say,  that  the  old  book 
is  only  calculated  to  frighten  children,  and  old  ladies, 
about  ghosts,  and  spectres  after  the  death  of  the  body. 

When  they  are  ready  to  ask  the  followers  of  Christ, 
what  person  in  this  state,  ever  saw  the  thing  called  the 
human  soul.  But,  old  shipmate,  notwithstanding  the 
fastidious  views  of  the  wise  gentlemen  of  the  world,  re- 
specting the  person  of  Christ,  and  the  doctrine  of  the 
souPs  immortality,  which  he  so  positively  and  clearly 
taught,  and  the  careless  interest  they  appear  to  take 
either  in  the  eternal  happiness  or  misery  of  their  souls 
in  a  coming  world. 


And  it  came  to  pass,  that  after  these  reflections  had 
passed  for  a  few  moments  through  his  mind,  when  some 
kind  or  sister  spirit,  like  as  our  Lord  said  to  the  Jew- 
ish Rabbi: — "The  wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and 
thou  nearest  the  sound  thereof."  So  is  every  one  that 
is  born  of  the  spirit,  brought  to  his  recollection.  The 
fatherly  advice  of  Phillip  to  his  young  son  upon  a  cer- 
tain occasion,  (who  has  been  called  by  historians  Alex- 
ander the  Great.)  which  came  with  great  force  to  his 
mind.  My  son,  said  Phillip  of  Macedon,  seek  a 
better  and  larger  kingdom,  than  the  small  patrimony  of 
your  father  has  it  in  his  power  to  bestow  upon  you,  for 
Macedon  is  too  small  for  you,  it  has  neither  riches, 
glory,  length,  breadth,  nor  physical  resources,  to  ac- 
commodate, the  vast  mental  and  physical  prowess  the 
which,  my  son,  you  have  this  day  in  the  presence  of 
my  court  placed  in  our  view. 

And  it  came  to  pass,  that  when  this  young  Scion  had 
arrived  to  man's  estate,  that  Alexander  with  the  feal- 
ty of  a  dutiful  son,  remembered  the  prayer  and  coun- 
sel of  his  father,  and  placed  the  same  in  all  his 
wars  fully  before  his  mind,  and  indulged  the  sound  of 
his  father's  prayer  to  be  ever  vibrating  in  his  ears, 
when  Onesimus  said,  such  counsel  from  a  father,  and 
such  fealty  on  the  part  of  a  son,  is  worthy  our  imitation, 
when  he  said  to  his  Soul,  seek  a  better  kingdom  than 
this  bubbling  world,  this  time  state,  this  theatre  of 
vanity,  for  it  has  neither  length  nor  breadth,  nor  height 
nor  depth  ;  to  satisfy  the  physical  and  mental  prowess 
of  the  vast  empire  of  thy  mind.  Our  old  shipmate  is 
ready  to  call  out  to  the  man  at  the  wheel  or  helm,  that 
it  is  high  time  to  brace  the  yards  and  haul  aft  the  sheets, 
and  trim  the  bowlings,  and  leave  poor  Job  to  sing  his 
mournful  song  to  himself,  and  sail  up  to  latitude  of  the 
gallows,  in  order  to  let  us  hear  how  this  young  sailor 
comes  on  with  his  dolorous  reflections  respecting  those 
three  malefactors,  in  the  agonies  of  death.  And  it  came 
to  pass,  as  young  Onesimus  stood  at  a  distance  and 
viewed  them,  with  their  white  caps  over  their  fac-?s,  as 
they  hung  suspended  under  the  gallows,  when  these 
gloomy  thoughts   suddenly  rushed   through  his   mind, 

B 


10 

respecting  human  nature,  and  why  it  was,  that  an  all 
wise  and  powerful  being,  should  suffer  or  permit  any  of 
the  children  of  men,  to  come  to  such  a  tragical  end,  or 
what  could  have  been  the  ultimate  design  of  the  great 
author  of  nature  in  bringing  into  existence  such  a 
wretched  race  of  beings,  that  any  of  them  should  be 
brought  to  such  an  awful  end.  When  he  was  ready  in 
the  dolorous  language  of  Paul  to  exclaim,  €f  O,  wretched 
man  that  I  am!  who  shall  deliver  me  from  the  body  of 
this  death. "  But  we  think  we  hear  our  old  shipmate, 
as  he  sit-in  his  cabin,  with  the  hanging  compass  over 
his  head,  as  we  have  once  said,  call  out  to  the  helms- 
man, not  to  let  the  ship  Perseverance  fall  off  from  the 
winds  eye,  and  the  point  of  the  compass,  which  the 
ship  set  out  to  steer  by,  on  her  voyage  to  the  land  of 
immortality,  by  first  bearing  away  after  Nimrody  and 
then  the  kings  of  the  earth,  and  then  bearing  do,wn  on 
poor  shipwrecked  Job,  and  then,  to  a  college  of  wise 
Philosophers.  But  haul  your  wind  and  sail  up  to  the 
place  of  execution  and  inform  us  how  this  youngster 
made  it  out  with  his  melancholy  view,  on  the  condition 
of  the  sons  of  men.  Dear  old  shipmate,  we  are  led  to 
receive  your  wise,  and  timely  admonitions  as  correct, 
and  shall  hereafter  endeavor  to  keep  them,  like  young 
Alexander  did  his  fathers  counsel,  always  in  mind* 


11 


No.  1.  The  young  sailor  excogitating  iii  his  mind  on  the  mysterious 

designs  of  the  Almighty,  in  permitting  any  of  the  human  race 

to  come  to  such  an  awful  end. 
No.  2.  The  three  men  as  they  hung  in  the  agonies  of  death. 
No.  3.  The  two   men  who  received  a  pardon  from  the  governor* of 

Pennsylvania. 
No.  4.  The  Sheriff  presenting  the  pardon  to  the  two  meii   as    they 

were  seated  on  their  coffins. 

And  it  came  to  pass,  after  the  execution  was 
over,  that  young  Onesimus,  came  home  to  his  father's 
house,  when  the  most  gloomy  and  melancholy  views  of 
the  human  race,  passed  in  quick  succession  through  his 
mind,  followed  by  a  constant  presentation  of  the  three 
dying  malefactors  as  they  hung  under  the  gallows. 

And  the  next  day,  for  the  first  twelve  years  of  his 
existence,  he  was  most  suddenly  and  powerfully  tempt- 
ed to  drown  himself  in  the  Delaware  river,  in  order 
to  get  rid  of  an  existence,  that  to  him  appeared  to  be 
so  dark  and  mysterious,  and  from  that  day  he  became 
the  unhappy  subject  of  these  deleterious  thoughts,  more 
or  less,  night  and  day  ;  and  especially  so,  when  any  in- 
strument or  other  means  of  danger  was  in  his  view. 
Such,  for  instance,  as  the  loaded  fire-arms  in  his  father's 
house,  or  any  deep  water,  or  being  elevated  from  the 
earth,  or  any  other  danger  was  in  his  view.  Now  it  is 
evident  that  these  thoughts  were  not  his  own,  for  this 
obvious  reason,  for  the  moment  the  instrument  or  other 


12 

means  of  self  destruction  were  out  of  his  sight,  those  aw- 
ful thoughts  were  gone  from  his  mind,  the  which  leads 
us  to  conclude  that  these  deleterious  thoughts  were  the 
work  of  some  hidden  and  foreign  agency.  No  wonder, 
then,  if  those  evil  thoughts  that  followed  this  young  sin- 
ner night  and  day  were  the  suggestions  of  satan,  as  they 
had  no  location  in  his  mind,  only  when  some  place  of 
danger  or  instrument  of  destruction  presented  itself  to 
his  view. 

Thus  this  young  lad  went  on  his  way,  daily  having  his 
mind  pestered  with  those  deleterious  thoughts,  and  could 
not  divert  his  mind  from  them,  when  any  dangerous 
place  or  instrument  was  near  him. 

Therefore,  satan  by  his  wiles,  caused  this  young  boy 
to  sigh  and  groan  within  himself,  in  consequence  of  being 
pestered  with  such  unnatural  ideas,  for  about  a  wh  oleyear; 
and  finding  that  his  hidden  master,  kept  this  poor  young 
sinner,  at  the  same  lesson  more  or  less  every  day,  when 
he  at  times  became  so  low  spirited,  that  he  had  thoughts 
of  running  away  from  school,  not  knowing  at  that  time, 
that  his  Lord  and  master  of  old  sent  his  young  lads  he  de- 
signed for  the  work  of  the  ministry,  on  board  his  gospel 
armament  to  the  college  of  temptation  to  finish  their  edu- 
cation.— James  says,  u  blessed  is  the  man  that  endur- 
eth  temptation  ;  for  when  he  is  tried,  he  shall  receive 
the  crown  of  life,"  which  leads  us  once  more  to  observe, 
by  taking  special  notice  of  the  same,  that  God  having 
but  one  only  begotten  Son,  sent  him  to  this  college  or 
school,  to  finish  his  studies  under  that  celebrated  teacher 
the  devil,  it  is  very  singular  to  remark,  that  three  of  the 
chief  officers  who  have  sent  their  sea  or  Cape  letters  to  the 
gospel  armament,  have  taken  particular  notice  of  this 
part  of  our  Lord's  education,  as  the  last  ornamental  ac- 
complishment that  his  divine  Father^  saw,  was  indispen- 
sably necessary,  so  that  he  might  obtain  his  diploma 
signed  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  in  order  that  Christ  might 
be  inducted  into  the  priestly  office,  and  become  the  min- 
ister of  God's  true  sanctuary.  Now,  Matthew  and  Luke 
tell  us  that  the  spirit  of  God  lead  his  Son  by  the  leading 
string  of  fealty:  to  this  severe  master  that  is,  in  their 
language,  to  be  tempted  of  the  devil.   But  Mark  is  mueh 


13 

more  bold,  and  says  that  the  Spirit  of  God,  or  the  Holy 
Ghost,  drove  his  Son  into  the  wilderness  to  be  tempted 
of  the  devil.  "  And  immediately  the  Spirit  driveth 
him  into  tlfe  wilderness,"  Mark  i.  12.  And  now,  dear 
shipmate,  surely  it  can  be  no  disgrace  to  poor  Onesimus 
that  it  pleased  God  to  send  him  to  study  so  hard  for  a 
whole  year. 

And  now  what  are  the  inferences  which  common 
sense  draws  from  the  views  the  writer  has  hastily  taken 
of  the  spiritual  accomplishments  of  a  true  minister  of  the 
gospel  sanctuary,  why  they  are  as  follows,  and  we  are  full 
of  confidence  to  believe.,  that  we  have  some  pretty  wise, 
and  experienced  officers  on  our  side  of  the  argument,  to 
wit:  That  however  richly  a  person  is  or  may  be  adorned 
with  the  science,  which  the  most  finished  education 
can  bestow  in  this  mundane  state,  without  the  special 
grace  of  God  to  change  and  sanctify  their  hearts,  as  Paul 
says  they  are  nothing  more  nor  less,  than  a  sounding 
brass  or  a  tinkling  cymbol,  yet  it  is  true  that  many  un- 
sanctified  men  may  wish  to  follow  Christ  into  the  minis- 
try of  his  militant  church,  as  some  of  the  Jews  did  for 
the  sake  of  the  loaves  and  fishes,  and  they  may  be  in  the 
most  extensive  possession  of  the  vast  republic  of  letters 
that  embrace  the  elements  of  all  languages,  both  of  men 
and  angels,  and  as  we  have  already  observed  in  the  little 
case  of  our  water  bubbles,  that  here  and  there  one 
raises  his  head,  like  as  in  the  case  of  Saul,  a  little  above 
his  lesser  brethren  in  the  outward  church  of  Christ  on 
earth,  and  for  a  few  days  or  years,  with  the  overwhelm- 
ing elements  of  his  powerful  and  prostrating  oratory  and 
for  a  while  bears  down  all  opposition,  and  using  a  natu- 
ral figure  just  like  the  rushing  in  of  mighty  waters,  car- 
ries the  minds  and  views  of  thousands,  (as  Paul  says  in 
his  last  letter  to  Timothy  having  itching  ears,)  into  the 
unbound  sea  of  their  vast  designs  of  evangelizing  the 
world  without  the  special  power  of  the  Mighty  God  of 
Israel,  in  some  miraculous  way  co-operating  with  them, 
and  others  with  the  fashionable  theology  of  the  day,  with 
the  intense  study  over  the  outward  letter  of  the  gospel, 
being  at  the  same  time  entirely  unacquainted  with  the 
watch-word  on  board  the  ship  Perseverance.     "Marvel 


14 

not  that  I  said  unto  thee,  ye  must  be  born  again.  The 
wind  bloweth  where  itlisteth,  and  thou  nearest  the  sound 
thereof,  but  canst  not  tell  whence  it  cometh,  and  whither 
it  goeth  :  so  is  every  one  that  is  born  of  the  spirit." 
John  iii.  7,  8.  And  although,  these  wonderful  paragons, 
of  the  dead  letter  of  the  gospel  may  with  the  softer  ele- 
ments of  fine  periods,  and  harmonious  sounds  of  well 
selected  words,  cause  the  high  wrought  sensibility  of 
many  of  their  admirers  to  make  them  almost  believe  they 
are  seated  under  the  tree  of  life,  which  is  in  the  midst 
of  the  paradise  of  God.  But  your  admonition  reminds 
us  of  our  duty  simultaneously  with  the  rushing  sand  of 
time,  through  its  ephemeral  hour  glass  of  life.  Not  to 
let  the  ship  fall  off  the  wind's  eye  so  often,  the  which 
your  seafaring  experience  teaches  you  is  too  often  the 
case,  when  the  sailor  at  the  wheel  gets  in  some  disul- 
torious  conversation,  with  one  of  the  passengers  or  by- 
standers, the  which  too  often  diverts  his  eye  from  the 
shivering  condition  of  his  sails  as  well  the  sure  point  of 
the  compass  of  the  ship  Perseverance,  so  that  we  receive 
your  admonition  both  timely  and  wise. 

My  dear  old  shipmate,  it  becomes  our  duty  to  adver- 
tise you,  that  young  Onesimus,  studied  for  about  a  year 
under  this  celebrated  Doctor,  who  was  and  is  still  the 
President  of  the  college  of  Temptation,  that  it  came  to 
pass,  that  after  his  master,  become  too  severe,  so  that 
the  old  adage  would  fitly  apply  in  his  case,  all  work  and 
no  pastime  would  finally  make  this  young  sailor  a  dull 
boy,  and  keeping  him  at  the  same  monotonous  lesson 
every  day;  that  is  being  beset  by  satan  to  destroy  himself 
in  some  way  or  other,  for  more  than  a  whole  year,  after 
seeing  the  three  men  executed,  and  at  the  same  time 
being  ignorant  of  the  way  of  deliverance  through  faith 
in  the  blood  and  merits  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  So 
that  he  had  no  ears  to  hear,  nor  heart  to  understand  the 
voice  of  kindness,  and  mercy  through  his  revealed  word 
to  poor  tempted  sailors. 

And  poor  stupid,  and  ignorant  Onesimus,  not  know- 
ing any  way  to  get  clear  of  such  revolsive  ideas,  he 
thought  to  himself  that  he  would  try  and  get  a  boy's 
birth  on  board  of  one  of  the  small  privateers,  that  sailed 


15 

out  of  the  port  of  Philadelphia  so  as  to  get  to  sea,  and  go 
to  some  other  part  of  the  world,  and  if  the  fates  (so 
that  you  see  that  this  lad,  with  millions  of  others  in  this 
dark  and  sinful  world,  had  not  the  least  distant  idea  of 
the  dark  agency  of  satan,  as  the  primary  cause  of  all  his 
unnatural  thoughts,)  should  at  last  propel  him  to  do  the 
act  of  destroying  himself,  he  might  he  in  some  other  part 
of  the  world,  when  his  friends  and  family  should  not  be 
permitted  to  behold  the  awful  catastrophe.  In  the  fall  of 
1782  he  made  several  attempts  to  get  a  birth  on  board 
some  of  the  small  war  vessels.  But  as  there  was  at  time  a 
great  prospect  of  peace  between  America,  and  England, 
a/small  boy  who  had  not  been  to  sea,  stood  but  little 
chance  to  get  a  birth  without  the  special  interest  of 
friends,  and  as  he  could  not  obtain  the  agency  of  friends  in 
getting  to  sea,  he  had  to  give  the  sea  voyage,  or  priva- 
teering business  up. 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  early  in  the  spring  of  1783, 
that  his  temptations  suddenly  spread  their  wings  and  de- 
parted for  a  season,  (as  was  the  case  with  our  Lord. 
And  when  the  devil  had  ended  all  the  temptation,  he 
departed  from  him  for  a  season,  Luke  iv.  13.)  When  he 
gave  up  the  idea  of  going  to  sea.  But  the  Lord  was  not 
going  to  let  the  young  sinner  entirely  abandon  a  seafar- 
ing life,  and  as  we  have  no  doubt,  run  our  ship  Perse- 
verance foul  of  your  locker  of  patience,  we  put  up  the 
old  inkhorn,  and  close  our  logbook,  and  turn  into  our 
hammock,  till  the  morning  watch  on  deck,  and  if  the 
cherub  who  sets  a  loft  should  give  us  a  fine  day,  we 
shall  be  tempted  to  open  the  old  logbook  of  our  ship  and 
write  you  again  something  about  this  young  lad's  cape 
letter  from  on  board  the  ship  Perseverance  bound  on  a 
voyage  of  discovery,  in  search  of  the  soul's  immortality. 

Port  of  Philadelphia,  March  30,   1783. 

Onesimus, 
To  Elder  Joseph  Maylin. 


16 


LETTER    II 


Onesimus  leaving  his  father's  house  and  going  to  the  city  of  New 
York,  while  the  British  army  had  possession  of  the  same,  and  a 
vision  of  spirits  which  was  seen  by  all  on  board  the  vessel  in  York 
Bay  in  the  summer  of  1783. 

Dear  sir, — Our  last  sea  letter  left  young  Onesimus  out  of 
the  college  of  temptation,  it  being  a  season  of  vacation 
during  which  time  the  thoughtless  youth  forgot  all  the 
useful  lessons,  the  old  President  of  the  college  of  temp- 
tation had  taught  him. 

Therefore  his  heavenly  father  (although  at  that  time 
he  had  no  perfect  nor  distinct  knowledge,  that  he  was 
in  any  degree  related  to  the  royal  family)  saw  proper  to 
take  him  for  a  season  from  under  the  tuition  of  Satan,  and 
send  him  to  another  college  and  put  him  under  a  celebrat- 
ed teacher  whose  name  was  the  wise  and  unerring  Provi- 
dence of  God,  so  that  in  this  vast  establishment  there 
was  taught  a  greater  variety  of  the  sciences  than  in  the 
college  of  temptation  the  which  were  more  congenial  to 
the  habits  of  Onesimus,  than  the  dull  turmoil  of  going 
through,  and  reciting  the  same  lesson  over  and  over 
again  every  day,  and  as  President  Providence  made  it  a 
general  rule  or  maxim,  to  drill  his  young  gospel  cadets 
in  some  new  branch  of  seamanship  in  order  that  when 
their  education  is  finished,  they  might  be  able  to  add  to 
their  faith,  virtue ;  and  to  virtue  knowledge  ;  and  to 
knowledge,  temperance;  and  to  temperance,  patience  ; 
and  to  patience,  godliness;  and  to  godliness,  brotherly 
kindness  ;  and  to  brotherly  kindness,  charity,  or  rather 
Love.  2  Peter  i.  5 — 7.)  So  that  this  wise  arrangement 
you  see  entirely  removes  any  dull  or  monotonous  effects 
from  the  student's  mind  and  renders  his  condition  at  col- 
lege more  filicitous. 

You  remember  that  our  last  scroll  from  the  log-book 
of  our  ship,  informed  you  that  the  lad  was  no  longer 
troubled  like  Alexander  the  great)  with  the  cooing  voice 
of  the  old  soldier,  the  serpent  of  hell,  or  satan,  on  the 
outside  of  his  tent,  or  in  our  vernacular  tongue  those 
evil  thoughts  and  temptations  to  destroy  himself,  so  that 
he  gave  up  the  idea  of  going  to  sea.     But  you  no  doubt 


17 

remember  our  countersign,  or  watch  word  during  this  long 
hazardous  voyage  was  to  be,  that  the  wind  bloweth  where 
it  listeth  and  thou  hearest  the  sound  thereof,  but  can- 
not tell  from  whence  it  cometh,  nor  whither  it  goeth, 
so  is  every  one  that  is  born  of  the  Spirit  Therefore, 
one  of  those  wires,  yet  in  some  sense  like  the  dreams  of 
young  Joseph,  which  appears  like  an  hair  link  which 
connects  the  vast  chain  of  providence  together,  took 
place  in  the  month  of  June  1783,  his  father  sent  him  with 
his  hired  man  into  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  to  bring 
out  of  the  city,  some  articles  used  in  his  business,  and 
when  returning  with  the  same  the  horse  took  fright  at 
something  unknown  to  this  day,  and  running  the  cart  on 
teh  side  of  an  hill  overturned  the  same,  the  which  broke 
many  of  the  articles  to  pieces,  and  would  have  kil  ed 
the  unworthy  subject  of  our  biography  on  the  spot  had 
he  not  possesed  the  presence  of  mind  to  spring  from  under 
the  cart  as  it  went  over,  and  when  they  returned  home 
with  the  news  of  the  disaster,  the  man  to  cl  ear  himself 
from  having  the  damages  to  pay,  laid  the  blame  on 
Onesimus  by  telling  his  father  that  he  undertook  to 
drive  the  horse  contrary  to  his  desire,  the  which  had  no 
foundation  in  truth  and  when  he  found  that  his  father 
admitted  the  man's  statement  of  the  case  to  be  correct,  he 
experienced  a  little  of  the  choler  of  his  sinful  nature  to 
rise,  and  his  father  having  promised  that  the  damages 
should  be  all  settled  the  next  morning,  and  knowing 
him  to  be  a  person  of  his  word  in  all  matters  of  that 
character,  he  said  to  himself  the  time  is  come  for  him  to 
be  off  into  the  wide  world,  when  he  went  into  the  house 
and  tied  up  his  few  clothes  into  a  handkerchief,  with 
about  five  or  six  dollars  in  money,  (which  he  had  been 
saving  together  for  some  length  of  time  to  buy  a  fowling- 
piece  ;  the  possession  of  which  at  that  time  he  thought 
would  complete  his  happiness  in  this  world,)  and  off  he 
went  like  his  foolish  brother,  the  prodigal  in  Luke  gos- 
pel, but  under  quite  dissimilar  circumstances ;  for  his 
was  young  to  fall  into  the  prodigal's  folly,  for  he  had  no 
money  to  spare  in  any  kind  of  riotous  living,  and  too 
young  in  life  to  experience  the  counter  part  of  his  folly, 
his  departure  took  place  about  five  o'clock  in  the  after- 

C 


18 

noon,  on  the  10th  of  June,  1783.  Onesimusrun  into 
the  city  that  evening,  and  went  on  board  a  large  ship 
which  had  just  arrived  from  England,  after  the  peace  of 
1783.  The  sailors  of  the  ship  granted  him  the  favour 
of  staying  in  the  ship  all  night,  for  having  left  his  home 
in  anger,  and  being  grieved  in  his  spirit  that  the  hired 
person  had  accused  him  wrongfully  to  his  father,  so  that 
he  knew  not  what  to  do,  nor  where  he  intended  to  go, 
any  more  than  to  get  from  home,  and  the  smell  of  the 
ship  was  not  very  agreeable  to  his  olfactory  nerves  that 
night.  He  rose  early  next  morning,  and  looking  over 
the  stern  of  the  ship  in  the  direction  of  his  father's  house, 
when  he  saw  a  boat  coming  down  the  Delaware,  not  more 
than  a  quarter  of  a  mile  distance  from  the  ship  in  which  he 
saw  a  person  standing  in  the  stern  of  the  same ;  which 
he  soon  discovered  was  his  father,  when  he  instantly 
Tun  out  of  the  ship,  when  the  voice  of  his  father  reiter- 
ated in  his  ears,  "My  son,  don't  runf  off  from  your  father;' ? 
when  he  run  out  of  the  vessel,  and  up  the  wharf  with  all 
speed,  and  hid  himself  hi  some  out-house,  in  Southwark 
Philadelphia. 


'  v~ 


19 


No.   1.  His  father  calling  to  him,  and  saying  my  son  don't  runoff 

from  your  father. 
No.  2.   Onesimus   in  the  act  of  running  off  from  the  voice  of  his 

father. 
No.  S.  The  large  English   ship,  in  the  which  he  sleep  the   first 

night  after  he  set  sail  to  find  the  soul's  immortality. 
No.  4.  A  small  island  called  Wind-mill  Island,  opposite  the  city 

of  Philadelphia. 
No.  5.  The  city  of  Philadelphia  as  it  appeared  in  1783. 

In  the  which  he  tarried  about  half  an  hour  till  he 
thought  his  father  had  given  over  searching  for  him. 
But  while  he  was  in  this  loathsome  prison,  he  cogitated 
in  his  mind  what  to  do,  and  which  way  he  should  steer 
his  course,  when  the  idea  struck  his  mind  to  go  to  New 
York,  as  the  only  place  to  elude  the  search  of  his  father. 

And  when  he  came  out  of  his  hiding  place,  he  ran 
round  by  the  Schuylkill  side  of  the  city,  and  got  into 
the  road  that  leads  to  Trenton,  (a  place  noted  in  the  re- 
volutionary war,  where  Washington  suddenly  surprised 
about  a  thousand  of  the  royal  army  of  George  the  third, 
king  of  England,  and  made  them  prisoners  of  war;  the 
which  appears  to  the  writer  as  one  of  those  wonderful 
hair-links  of  an  overruling  Providence,  on  the  which 
converged,  as  on  a  single  point,  the  destiny  of  a  nation 
only  as  yet  in  a  state  of  embryo,  so  that  the  wisdom,  skill 
and  sword  of  Washington,  by  this  act,  thrown  into  the 
vibrating  scale  of  the  war  of  1776,  caused  it  to  prepon- 


20 

derate  in  favour  of  the  salvation  of  a  people  destined,  we 
humbly  trust,  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  nations  of  the 
earth;  but  in  a  special  sense  in  consequence  of  the  light 
of  civil  and  religious  liberty.  She  as  a  national  telegraph* 
converging  her  rays  of  civil  light  on  all  the  oppressed 
and  enslaved  children  of  men.) 

But  to  return  to  the  case  of  Onesimus.  On  the  even- 
ing of  the  second  day  he  reached  a  place  in  New  Jersey 
called  Perth  Amboy,  and  from  hence  got  on  board  a  small 
vessel  for  New  York.  In  this  vessel  he  fell  in  with  a 
young  person  about  19  or  20  years  of  age,  who  was  going 
in  search  of  his  sister,  who  during  the  revolutionary 
war,  and  while  the  British  army  were  in  the  State  of 
New  Jersey,  had  married  a  quarter- master  of  one  of  the 
British  regiments.  And  as  peace  had  taken  place,  the 
parents  or  other  friends  of  the  family,  sent  the  brother 
to  ascertain  her  situation.  When  the  young  man  arriv- 
ed at  New  York  he  was  informed  the  regiment  was  at  a 
place  on  Long  Island,  called  Flushing.  So  the  young 
man  persuaded  the  subject  of  our  little  history  to  accom- 
pany him,  as  he  was  a  stranger  in  search  of  his  sister. 
So  they  went  on  the  Island  together,  and  when  they  had 
proceeded  a  few  miles,  they  were  stopped  by  the  British 
guards,  who  demanded  their  pass;  but  having  none  to 
present,  they  were  put  into  the  guard-house,  arid  after  a 
short  time  brought  before  the  officer  of  the  day,  to  whom 
the  young  man  stated  the  object  of  their  journey,  which 
was  to  see  his  sister  ;  and  giving  the  name  of  her  husband, 
and  regiment  to  whieh  he  belonged,  the  officer  let  them 
pass,  without  farther  detention.  And  when  they  came 
to  Flushing,  he  found  his  sister;  but  the  quarter- master 
and  the  regiment  were  at  a  place  called  Oyster  Bay, 
from  twenty  to  thirty  miles  distant,  when  her  brother 
concluded>  that  as  long  as  he  had  come  so  far,  he  would 
go  and  see  his  sister's  husband  before  he  returned  to  her 
father's  house.  Here  it  may  be  proper  to  remark  that 
the  lady  had  the  appearance  of  the  wreck  of  a  handsome 
person  ;  but  in  consequence  of  the  indulgence  of  a  dete- 
riorating, or  rather  degrading  vice,  she  had  greatly,  like 
the  Queen  of  Egypt  in  the  days  of  Csesar  Augustus,  de- 
preciated some  of  the  tenets  of  her  former  beauty,  and 


21 

after  staying  at  Flushing  a  few  days,  the  brother  set  off 
to  Oyster  Bay,  and  took  the  subject  of  our  dolorous  story 
with  him,  and  the  next  day  found  his  sister's  husband  at 
the  above  place,  who  behaved  very  kindly  to  the  young 
man,  and  from  the  conversation  that  passed  between  them 
it  appeared  that  the  quarter-master  had  been  once  ex- 
cessively and  passionately  fond  of  his  sister,  and  he  told 
him  that  her  base  conduct  was  such,  that  he  should  not 
go  nigh  her  any  more.  And  as  the  young  man  had  seen 
enough  of  her  conduct  the  short  time  he  remained  at 
Flushing,  so  that  he  could  not  deny  her  husband's  state- 
ment of  her  case.  And  as  the  quarter-master  occupied 
a  red  frame  building  as  a  store  or  depository  of  the  am- 
munition, provisions,  and  other  warlike  articles  for  the 
regiment ;  and  he  being  much  of  his  time  out  of  the  store, 
he  wanted  a  boy  about  the  age  and  size  of  Onesimus  to 
stay  and  mind  the  store  during  the  times  of  his  absence; 
and  being  a  stranger,  and  his  little  money  almost  gone, 
he  accepted  the  berth,  and  the  young  man  returned  to 
his  people,  and  left  his  young  acquaintance  in  the  employ 
of  his  sister's  husband,  and  have  never  saw  each  other 
since. 

Onesimus  was  well  satisfied  with  his  new  quarters  for 
about  two  weeks,  when  an  imaginary  danger,  or  in  the 
view  of  many  persons  will  no  doubt  be  considered  as  a 
trifling  thing,  disturbed  his  resting  place.  According 
to  a  declaration  of  holy  writ,  (there  is  no  peace,  saith  my 
God,  to  the  wicked.  Isaiah  57,  21.)  This  small  occur- 
rence, or  rather  incident,  which  drove  him  from  his  new 
berth,  was  as  follows :  There  was  close  by  his  bed  where 
he  had  to  sleep,  several  kegs  of  gun  rowder,  the  which, 
when  he  understood  what  was  in  them,  when  it  so  pow- 
erfully wrought  on  his  fears,  lest  the  exploding  article 
by  some  accident  should  be  ignited  and  blow  him  to  a 
thousand  pieces,  for  he  was  now  fond  of  life,  and  Satan 
was  not  at  this  season  permitted  to  tempt  him  as  on  form- 
er occasions,  and  as  his  fears  increased  night  and  day,  so 
that  his  sleep  departed  from  him,  when  he  rose  early  one 
morning  and  set  off  for  New  York,  and  there  fell  in  with 
a  refugee  Captain,  that  owned  a  small  vessel,  who  at  that 
time  followed  fishing  for  a  kind  of  fish  named  seabass  and 


22 

blackfisb,  and  also  bringing  tbe  Jersey  people  with  their 
produce  to  the  New  York  Market,  who  received  for 
the  same  the  silver  and  gold  of  the  British  army,  who 
still  had  possession  of  the  city.  Onesimus  hired  with 
this  captain  for  an  English  guinea  per  month,  early  in 
July,  1783;  and  was  well  pleased.' with  his  new  occupa- 
tion and  master,  and  he  had  plenty  of  that  which  was 
necessary  to  live  on. 

And  one  day  as  the  vessel  was  crossing  York  Bay 
from  the  Narrows  to  Sandy  Hook  light-house,  as  the 
boy  Onesimus  was  steering  the  vessel,  when  his  captain 
came  and  took  the  helm,  and  sent  the  boy  into  the  hold 
of  the  vessel  to  clean  out  the  same  after  the  market  peo- 
ple, who  always  made  more  or  less  dirt  in  the  hold  with 
their  articles  of  produce  going  up  to  the  market,  and 
among  the  hay  and  other  rubbage  he  found  two  pieces 
of  gold  of  the  value  of  eight  Spanish  dollars,  these  he 
put  into  his  pocket,  and  there  is  no  doubt  but  some  of 
the  country  people  lost  the  same  out  of  their  pockets, 
aslthey  had  to  sleep  or  lie  down  in  the  hold  of  the  ves- 
sel in  crossing  the  bay.  And  when  he  had  cleaned  the 
hold  of  the  vessel  and  put  all  things  in  order  to  please 
his  master  he  came  on  deck,  and  went  into  the  cabin  as 
though  he  had  something  to  do,  when  he  took  up  a 
brick  out  of  the  hearth  of  the  fire-place  of  the  cabin 
and  deposited  the  two  pieces  of  gold  in  the  place  from 
which  he  had  raised  the  brick,  and  placed  the  piece  of 
brick  in  its  former  place  again  ;  and  then  came  on  deck 
and  took  the  helm  again,  and  the  captain  was  never  the 
wiser  of  what  he  had  been  doing.  Suffer  us  to  notice 
that  that  these  two  pieces  of  gold  under  the  overruling 
of  an  alwise  providence,  were  the  only  outward  means 
of  getting  Onesimus  a  few  clothes  for  the  ensuing  win- 
ter: which  leads  us  to  observe  how  many  little  things 
in  our  view  transpire,  although  they  are  under  an  alwise 
but  to  us  a  mysterious  providence. 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  after  this  occurrence,  that 
Onesimus  and  his  captain  were  reciprocally  satisfied  with 
each  other's  conduct,  all  the  time  he  sailed  in  this  re- 
fugee captain's  employ,  which  was  about  three  months 
and  a  half.     And  as  we  have  nothing  more  worthy  of 


23 

remark,  with  the  exception  of  one  singular  occurrence, 
which  took  place  in  the  month  of  August,  1783,  and  if 
true,  goes  to  prove  the  immortality  of  the  human  soul, 
and  confound  the  skeptical  doctrines  of  the  age.  And 
was  as  follows:  the  writer  is  fully  sensible  that  in  giving 
this  statement  to  the  world,  that  he  will  be  the  acci- 
dental cause  of  getting  his  fleece  wet  with  the  risibility 
of  philosophy,  and  a  host  of  other  wise  and  knowing 
ones  of  this  age.  But  a  sense  of  duty  presses  us  on  to 
disregard  their  fits  of  laughter,  believing  the  day  is  fast 
approaching  when  their  risible  countenances  will  be  be- 
dewed with  a  flood  of  tears ;  be  that  as  it  may  we  shall 
fear  lessly  make  the  statement  of  the  case  to  the  world. 


24 


No.  1.  The  sloop  in  which  Onesimus  was,  when  the  strange  vessel 

passed  her  by  without  wind. 
No.  2.  The  schooner  full  of  people  which  passed  by  their  sloop  in 

a  dead  calm,  without  the  propelling  power  of  the  wind. 
No.  3.  A  Spanish  ship  on  a  shoal  in  York  Bay,  and  in  great  distress 

with  her  hold  full  of  water. 

Our  old  shipmate  will  bear  with  our  folly,  as  Paul 
says  to  one  of  the  churches  in  his   day  : — Now  the 
things  which  we  write  we  lie  not,  but  speak  the  truth 
before  God.     One  night  in  the  month  of  August;  1783, 
as  the  sloop  was  laying  in  the  middle  of  York  bay,  which 
lays  between  Sandy  Hook  light- house  and  the  Narrows, 
becalmed,  and  the  sea  like  a  sheet  of  glass,  and  not  the 
least  breath  of  air  moving  over  the  face  of  the  surround- 
ing waters,  and  the  moon  shining  with  peculiar  bright- 
ness ;  when  a  schoooner  full  of  people  passed  by  the 
sloop  in  which  Onesimus  was  in,  and  so  close  that  all 
hands  on  board  the  vessel  conld  clearly  see  the  peo.ple 
on  the  deck  of  ths  schooner,  and  the  colour  of  her  sails, 
when  she  sudenly  vanished  out  of  their  sight.     When 
the  captain  of  the  sloop  Onesimus  was  in,  said  to  us  all, 
did  you  see  the  schoener  pass  by  our  vessel?  when  we 
all  anwsered  him  in  the  affirmative  :  when  the  captain 
observed  to  all  on  board  his  vessel,  that  this  was  a  token 
for  some  one  or  more  on  board  his  vessel,  that  their 
time  was  short  in  this  world. 


25 

Now  in  order  to  prove  to  our  venerable  old  shipmate 
that  our  vision  had  some  foundation  in  truth,  respecting 
the  schooner  peopled  with  spirits,  or  the  ghosts  of  the 
departed  sons  of  men,  at  a  little  distance  from  the  sloop 
lay  a  large  Spanish  Ship  in  great  distress,  on  a  shoal  or 
bar  in  or  about  the  middle  of  York-bay,  having  bilged, 
and  her  lower  hold  full  of  water,  and  among  the  articles 
that  constituted  her  cargo,  was  a  large  quantity  of  sul- 
phur, and  salt-petre,  which  when  it  came  in  contact 
with  the  sea  water,  created  foul  air  in  the  hold  of 
the  ship.  The  next  day  when  a  number  of  small  craft 
were  round  the  ship  trying  to  save  as  much  of  her  car- 
go as  they  could,  and  while  most  of  the  crew  of  the 
Spanish  ship  was  at  work  in  the  lower  hold,  getting 
what  of  the  articles  of  the  cargo  they  could  to  the  hatch- 
ways of  the  ship,  in  order  that  the  hands  on  deck  might 
hoist  them  out,  and  put  them  on  board  the  small  vessels 
alongside,  when  a  simultaneous,  or  sudden  collection  of 
the  foul  air  from  the  different  articles  of  the  cargo, 
suffocated  all  the  hands  of  the  ship,  who  were  at  work 
in  the  lower  hold,  and  when  the  hands  on  the  deck  of 
the  ship  supposing  they  were  overcome  with  the  heat 
of  the  weather,  rushed  down  into  the  hold  of  the  ship 
to  relieve  their  drowning  shipmates,  when  they  also  in 
like  manner  were  suffocated,  so  that  a  ship  of  about 
eight  hundred  tons  burden,  lost  near  all  her  hands  in  a 
few  minutes  of  time,  the  captain  of  our  vessel  although 
a  refugee,  with  the  rest  of  the  hands  which  saw  the 
schooner  load  of  ghosts  pass  them  by  the  evening  before, 
acknowledged  that  the  sudden  death  of  the  ship's  crew 
yi  this  unforseen,  and  unexpected  manner,  was  a  per- 
fect and  true  anti-type,  and  providential  solution,  of  the 
vessel  full  of  apparitions  that  they  all  saw  the  evening 
before.  The  next  day  all  the  boats  of  the  Spanish  ship 
came  up  from  the  bay  with  the  dead  bodies,  the  writer 
saw  the  corpses  of  those  Spanish  sailors  laying  on  the 
slips  at  the  city  of  New  York  the  next  day.  Thus  aged 
shipmate  we  shall  pass  by  this  singular  phenomenon  of 
the  schooner  sailing  without  the  propelling  power  of  the 
wind,  peopled  with  spirits,  and  the  almost  simultane- 
ous death  of  near  all  the  people  of  a  large  Spanish  ship, 

D 


26 

we  leave  this  testimony  to  the  world  at  large,  but  more 
especially  to  our  Atheist  and  other  skeptical  gentlemen 
of  this  profound  age  of  wisdom  and  worldly  knowledge. 
And  having  sailed  by,  and  lost  sight  of  our  cargo  of 
spirits,  we  shall  return  to  the  case  and  experience  of 
Onesimus  ;  he  sailed  with  his  refugee  captain  till  about 
the  last  of  October,  1783,  and  the  season  for  fishing 
being  nearly  over,  and  his  master  wishing  to  sell  his  ves- 
sel, as  he  had  with  the  rest  of  his  brethren  belonging  to 
the  refugee  society,  to  depart  to  the  promised  land  of 
Nova  Scotia,  therefore  he  laid  up  his  vessel  for  sale,  in 
one  of  the  docks  on  the  East  river,  somewhere  near  the 
old  fly-market;  at  the  end,  or  head  of  the  dock,  a  rela- 
tion of  his  kept  a  boarding-house  ;  his  captain  ordered 
him  to  stay  on  board  the  vessel  and  take  care  of  the 
same,  till  his  return,  as  he  was  going  on  Long  Island  to 
see  his  people,  and  the  boy  was  to  get  his  meals  at  his 
friend's  boarding-house,  and  when  he  returned  he  should 
receive  all  his  wages.  Now  the  lad  Onesimus,  had  let 
all  his  wages  lay  in  his  captain's  hands  with  a  view  of 
buying  him  some  warm  clothes  for  the  ensuing  winter, 
which  was  now  fast  approaching,  and  having  waited  near 
double  the  time  he  had  fixed  on  to  be  gone,  he  inquired 
of  his  friend  what  part  of  Long  Island  his  people  lived 
at,  and  being  informed  by  him  it  was  about  eight  miles 
from  Brooklyn,  the  boy  went  in  search  of  his  master, 
and  found  the  house,  but  the  person  who  came  to  the 
door  denied  the  captain's  being  there,  and  did  not  know 
where  he  was  gone,  nor  when  he  would  be  home  ; 
when  he  began  to  see  his  three  guineas  and  a  half,  as 
sailors  say,  "was  shivering  in  the  wind,  or  looked  squally 
to  windward  ;"  he  came  back  to  the  city  the  same  day, 
and  informed  his  friend  that  he  was  not  to  be  found  at 
the  house  of  his  family,  who  put  him  off  with  some  eva- 
sive answer,  not  at  this  length  of  time  very  distinctly 
remembered,  his  friend,  we  believe,  had  married  the 
captain's  sister,  and  appeared  to  be  up  to  the  whole 
scheme  of  depriving  Onesimus  of  his  three  and  a  half 
guineas,  and  advised  him  to  get  a  birth  in  some  other 
vessel,  as  winter  was  fast  approaching  ;  and  what  to  do 
he  at  the  time  did  not  know,  and  at  the  same  time  the 


27 

boy  was  so  extremely  ignorant  of  common  law,  and  in- 
deed of  men  and  things  in  general,  or  of  the  legal  claims 
of  poor  sailors  respecting  their  Wages,  or  the  boy  might 
have  attached  his  master's  vessel  for  his  wages,  and  as 
there  were  several  refugee  captains  at  the  boarding- 
house  of  his  sister's  husband,  that  had  to  leave  New 
York  early  in  November,  and  most  of  them  were  bound 
to  the  land  of  promise,  as  we  have  already  observed, 
viz.,  Nova  Scotia ;  the  captain's  brother-in-law  soon 
obtained  a  birth  for  Onesimus,  and  as  all  was  hurry  with 
the  refugees  to  get  off  with  the  British  army,  who  were 
about  to  evacuate  the  city  of  New  York  before  the  last 
of  November,  according  to  the  articles  of  the  treaty  of 
peace  of  1783  ;  so  he  shipped  on  board  of  a  Virginia 
built  sloop  owned  by  one  of  these  refugee  captains,  at 
six  Spanish  dollars  per  month,  and  having  no  warm 
garments  for  the  cold  climate  of  Nova  Scotia,  when  he 
thought  of  the  two  pieces  of  gold  he  had  about  three 
months  before  deposited  under  a  brick  in  the  fire-place 
of  his  old  master's  cabin,  when  he  went  and  obtained 
the  keys  of  the  vessel  from  his  brother-in-law,  and  took 
up  the  brick  and  found  the  two  pieces  of  gold  in  safe 
keeping,  Onesimus  then  went  to  one  of  the  slop-shops, 
and  bought  two  woollen  garments  for  one  of  the  gold 
pieces,  and  the  other  he  sewed  fast  in  some  part  of  his 
new  garment,  that  he  might  not  lose  the  same. 

Here  indulge  us  for  a  moment  to  pause,  and  seriously 
reflect  on  this  over-ruling  providence  that  permitted 
at  the  loss  of  some  person's  interest  these  pieces  of  gold 
by  what  we  call  accident,  to  place  themselves  in  his 
way,  the  same  over-ruling  providence  equally  foresaw, 
that  his  captain  intended  to  wrong  the  poor  runaway 
boy  out  of  all  his  three-and-a-half  months  wages,  which 
leads  the  writer  to  exclaim  with  Paul  when  viewing  his 
wonderful  providence,  for  the  time  being,  in  his  reject- 
ing the  Jews  on  account  of  their  rejecting  his  son,  and 
of  his  calling  the  Gentile  world  to  be  his  church,  in  their 
stead.  But  the  same  Almighty  power  which  governs 
the  vast  empire  of  worlds,  and  of  the  nations  of  the 
earth,  has  kindly  informed  us  through  the  special  agency 
of  his  Son  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  that  the  smallest  oc- 


28 

currences  of  our  unprofitable  and  unworthy  persons, 
even  that  of  the  two  pieces  of  gold  in  the  case  of  this 
ignorant  boy,  are  equally  the  objects  of  his  care  ;  then 
we  are  justified  in  borrowing  the  apostle's  language  in 
his  case,  and  exclaim,  "  O,  the  depth  of  the  riches  both 
of  the  wisdom  and  knowledge  of  God  !  how  unsearcha- 
ble are  his  judgments,  and  his  ways  past  finding  out." 
And  it  came  to  pass,  that  in  a  few  days  after  he  had 
shipped  with  his  new  master,  that  his  sloop  was  ready 
to  sail  with  a  full  cargo  of  refugees  with  their  families 
and  their  goods,  and  other  effects,  and  as  the  hour  glass 
of  time  has  nearly  run  its  sand  through — and  our 
watch  on  deck  is  called,  we  will  turn  into  our  birth, 
and  when  it  is  our  watch  on  deck  again,  and  when  we 
have  a  clear  sun  and  a  gentle  breeze  from  the  writing 
quarter  of  the  gospel  heavens,  we  will  write  to  our 
friend  again  from  on  board  the  ship  Perseverance. 
New  York ,  November,  1783. 


29 


LETTER   III. 

His  leaving  the  city  of  New  York  with  some  of  the  refugees,  (a 
few  days  before  it  was  evacuated  by  the  whole  of  the  British 
army,)  and  sailing  for  the  land  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  the  vessel 
very  near  being  cast  away  on  her  passage,  and  his  conversation 
with  the  false  doctrine  of  Chance,  under  the  idea  or  similitude  of 
a  very  accomplished  lady,  respecting  a  special  providence  in  the 
concerns  of  the  children  of  men,  and  his  safe  arrival  in  Nova 
Scotia. 

Dear  Sir: 

In  our  last  we  informed  you  that  when  we  felt  a  free 
breeze  off  the  writing  quarter  of  the  ship  Perseverance, 
we  would  get  out  the  old  inkhorn,  and  note  down  a  few 
more  of  our  ideas,  of  what  transpired  in  this  part  of  his 
voyage  in  search  of  the  soul's  immortality. 

And  it  came  to  pass,  when  the  sloop  had  sailed  from 
New  York,  on  board  of  which  Onesimus  had  shipped 
with  a  freight  of  passengers,  all  of  that  class  of  people 
called  in  those  days  refugees,  that  for  the  first  two  or 
three  days  as  they  ran  through  the  Sound,  that 
is  the  sea  which  divides  Long  Island  from  the  main 
land,  all  was  pleasant  for  the  season  of  the  year;  but  on 
the  third  day  about  the  setting  of  the  sun,  the  pilot, 
who  was  by  these  refugees  called  an  old  Yankee,  and 
had  come  to  New  York  after  the  peace  of  1783,  to  get 
a  birth  to  pilot  a  vessel  to  the  land  of  Nova  Scotia,  and 
agreed  with  the  captain  and  owner,  for  to  pilot  his  ves- 
sel to  the  land  of  promise  for  a  certain  sum ;  the  old 
man  like  Isaac  the  father  of  Israel,  was  rather  near 
sighted,  and  not  being  on  the  coast  during  the  seven 
years  war,  so  that  he  had  forgot  some  of  his  old  land 
marks,  which  sea-faring  people  call  those  objects  on  a 
sea  coast,  by  which  they  sometimes  steer  their  way 
through  rocks,  bars,  shoals,  and  different  currents,  on 
a  sea  coast — which  are  more  or  less  located  in  every 
part  of  the  watery  world— this  pilot  ran  the  vessel  on 
a  shoal  about  four  or  five  leagues  from  the  land,  and 
she  being  a  sharp  Virginia  built  vessel,  and  loaded  with 
her  deck  not  more  than  a  foot  above  the  water,  and 

D2 


30 

beating  on  the  shoal,  and  the  day  light  fast  receding 
in  the  west,  and  their  situation  the  most  perilous  that 
human  beings  could  well  be  in,  and  the  enraged  captain 
and  the  rest  of  the  refugees  standing  round  the  old 
pilot  with  the  instruments  of  death  in  their  hands,  and 
imprecating  the  most  awful  oaths,  that  the  moment  the 
vessel  bilged  they  would  be  revenged  on  the  old  Yankee 
pilot,  by  taking  his  life  before  they  lost  their  own, 
when  the  salvation  of  all  on  board  seemed  to  be  almost 
impossible,  from  any  physical  power  that  human  beings 
are  in  possession  of,  therefore  if  their  lives  were  spared 
it  must  be  brought  about  by  some  agency  beyond  their 
control  :  Thus  all  on  board  stood  as  it  were  with  their 
death  warrants  suspended  over  their  persons,  by  the 
sheriff  who  rides  upon  the  pale  horse  whose  name  is 
death ;  and  the  enraged  refugees  stood  round  the  old 
man  like  the  Philistines  round  Sampson  at  the  pillows 
of  the  amphitheatre,  so  that  they  might  feast  on  revenge 
as  their  last  supper  in  this  world,  and  then  yield  their 
bodies  into  the  jaws  of  the  venomous  monster,  death. 


31 


Figure  1.  The  old  Pilot  standing 
refugees  with  axes  in  their 
moment  the  sloop  bilged. 


on  the  quarter  deck  between  two 
hands,  in  order   to   kill  him  the 


And  when  all  hope  of  their  lives  being  saved,  had 
almost  forsaken  them,  and  expecting  every  moment  to 
be  their  last,  when  that  almighty  being  who  declares  he 
holds  the  winds  in  his  hands,  as  in  an  instant  stopped 
the  blowing  of  the  wind  from  off  the  sea,  and  in  a  short 
time  the  wind  changed  to  the  opposite  point  of  the 
compass,  which  brought  the  wind  off  the  land,  when 
the  undulatory  sea  began  to  lower  its  angry  surges,  so 
that  the  beating  of  the  vessel  became  less  dangerous, 
and  the  setting  in  of  the  flood  tide  about  nine  o'clock 
in  the  evening,  drifted  the  sloop  from  off  the  shoal, 
when  they  cast  out  the  anchor  and  rode  in  safety  till 
the  next  morning  ;  when  they  made  sail  and  pursued 
their  voyage. 

Dear  old  shipmate,  we  think  we  hear  the  fastidious 
atheist  and  other  free-thinking  gentlemen  of  the  age, 
saying  to  themselves- — why  all  this  which  you  relate 
respecting  the  salvation  of  the  people  on  board  your 
vessel,  was  nothing  more  nor  less,  than  one  of  the  flirts 
of  the  careless  and  flowing  robe  of  lady  chance  in  one 
of  her  whimsical  moods,  as  she  cast  her  enchanting 
and  rolling  eye  towards  the  gods  of  nature,  that  was  the 


32 

cause  of  her  ladyship's  unintentionally  changing  the 
wind  to  the  opposite  quarter  of  the  heavens;  these  are 
the  views  which  all  carnal  and  unregenerated  persons, 
take  of  the  ways,  the  wisdom,  and  providences  of  God, 
who  view  with  their  skeptical  wisdom,  under  the  per-" 
sonification  of  a  lady,  exhibiting,  and  outshining  in 
every  expression  of  elegance  and  gracefulness  of  form, 
and  at  the  same  time  her  physical  qualities  richly 
adorned  with  every  other  ornamental  accomplishment 
which  her  mental  faculties  were  able  to  sustain,  pre- 
sents to  the  view  of  an  ungodly  and  unbelieving  world 
the  false  doctrine  of  chance,  more  imposing  than  the 
charms  of  Egypt's  beauteous  queen  did  to  some  of  the 
chief  commanders  of  ancient  Rome.  Therefore,  leaving 
lady  chance  and  her  vain  admirers  to  enjoy  their  own 
view,  relating  to  a  special  providence ;  so  that  after  calm- 
ly viewing  the  perilous  situation  of  Onesimus,  the  poor 
old  Yankee  pilot,  and  all  their  refugee  companions,  on 
board  that  evening,  and  their  temporal  salvation  being 
the  sudden  change  of  the  element,  which  is  not,  nor 
never  shall  be,  under  the  power  of  human  agency  or 
control,  leads  us  to  believe  it  to  be  as  much  an  act  of 
the  special  agency  of  providence,  as  those  which  are 
recorded  in  the  gospel  that  caused  the  astonished  ma- 
riners to  exclaim,  what  manner  of  man  is  this,  that  even 
the  physical  laws  of  nature  obey  him,  or  in  the  scripture 
phraseology,  "  The  winds  and  sea  obey  him."  Now 
the  only  difference  in  the  two  cases,  is  this,  that  in  the 
case  of  the  ancient  disciples,  they  were  permitted  to 
see  their  Lord  and  Master  with  their  natural  vision, 
and  touch  a  few  of  the  small  wires  connected  with  the 
wheels,  and  other  apparatus  of  a  special  providence  in 
their  behalf,  as  John  exclaims,  "  that  which  our  hands 
have  handled,  of  the  word  of  life." 

But  in  the  case  of  Onesimus,  and  the  poor  old  Yankee 
pilot,  and  vessel  load  of  refugees,  the  curtains  of  the 
scenery  was  lowered  down,  so  that  they  did  not  see  with 
an  eye  of  sense,  so  clearly  as  it  may  be  seen  by  an  eye 
of  faith  ;  all  this  providential  apparatus  in  all  its  mys- 
terious and  wonderful  operation  in  the  temporal  salva- 
tion of  those  ungodly  sinners,  who  were  for  a  few  days 


33 

like  the  ancient  Philistines,  willing  to  admit  that  some 
greater  agency  than  their  own,  saved  them  that  night 
from  a  watery  grave.  But  in  a  few  days,  like  the  un- 
circumcised  enemies  of  God's  ancient  Israel,  when  the 
danger  of  their  persons  was  a  little  passed  over,  they 
soon  began  to  conclude,  perhaps  it  was  only  a  chance 
that  saved  them.  And  it  came  to  pass  the  next  morn- 
ing they  weighed  the  anchor,  and  made  sail,  and  pur- 
sued their  voyage,  and  in  about  two  weeks  passage, 
after  encountering  high  winds  and  stormy  weather, 
they  reached  the  mouth  of  St.  John's  river,  and  soon 
got  up  to  the  town  :  and  as  the  hour  glass  of  their  watch 
on  deck  is  again  run  out,  and  the  mate's  watch  is  called : 
we  will  bid  you  good  night. 

Town  of  St.  Johns,  Bay  of  Fundi/,  in  the  British 
province  of  Nova  Scotia,  North  America. 


34 


LETTER   IV 


His  travelling  from  Annapolis,  over  a  deep  snow,  and  through  a 
lonely  wilderness,  and  the  distress  and  poverty  the  Lord  permit- 
ted to  come  upon  him,  in  order  one  day  to  bring  him  to  the  foot 
of  his  "cross. 

Dear  Sir : 

Our  last  scratch,  from  the  log-book  of  the  ship  Per- 
severance, brought  the  boy  Onesimus  to  the  land  which 
the  royal  munificence  of  George  the  third  King  of  Great 
Britain,  had  in  reversion  to  divide  among  his  loyal  sub- 
jects the  refugees  of  North  America,  and  a  cold  and 
solitary  land  it  was  in  that  season  of  the  year,  and  a 
few  days  after  their  arrival,  they  sailed  for  Annapolis 
river,  which  was  blockaded  with  ice,  and  in  a  few  days 
the  captain  had  all  his  goods  in  the  vessel  taken  up  to 
his  house  in  the  town  of  Annapolis,  and  then  informed 
Onesimus  and  another  young  man  of  about  twenty  years 
of  age,  that  as  the  navigation  was  closed  for  the  season, 
he  could  not  keep  them  under  wages  during  the  winter, 
but  as  they  came  from  New  York  in  his  vessel,  they 
with  the  rest  of  the  liege  subjects  of  his  royal  master, 
were  entitled  to  a  share  of  the  king's  munificence, 
which  he  provided  for  the  children  of  promise,  as  soon 
as  the  ensuing  spring  opened  he  would  put  them  on 
wages  again ;  the  boy  Onesimus  would  have  accepted 
the  offer  if  it  had  not  been  that  the  young  man 
advised  him  not  to  accept  the  captain's  offer,  and  in 
the  evening  of  the  same  day  he  persuaded  him  to  go  with 
him  to  the  city  of  Halifax — at  which  place  he  said 
there  was  not  the  least  doubt  but  that  both  of  them 
would  obtain  a  birth,  so  the  next  day  they  went  up  to 
the  captain's  house,  when  he  paid  them  all  the  wages 
that  was  due  them,  which  did  not  exceed  twelve  dol- 
lars, these  small  sums  with  the  other  gold  piece  that 
Onesimus  had  saved  out  of  the  two  pieces  he  found  in 
the  ballast  of  the  sloop  in  York  bay,  increased  their 
funds  to  about  twenty  dollars ;  the  day  after,  they  having 
obtained  some  raw  hide  and  made  themselves  snow 
shoes,  they  set  off  for  Halifax,  over  a  snow  from  two  to 


35 

three  feet  deep,  and  the  weather  being  intensely  cold, 
and  in  about  four    days  they  arrived  at  the  town  of 
Windsor,  about  one  hundred  miles  on  their  way   to 
Halifax,  and  put  up  at  an  inn  in  the  town,  and  as  soon 
as  supper  was  over,  the  boy  being  much  fatigued  with 
walking  in  the  snow  shoes,  went  to  rest,  leaving  his 
friend,  as  he  supposed,  in  some  desultory  conversation, 
to  spend  the  evening  with  the  host.     The  next  morning 
his  shipmate  informed  him,  that  he  went  to  see  an  old 
acquaintance  of  his,  who  was  farmer  in  or  near  the 
town,  who  wanted  a  hand  for  the  winter,  and  that  he 
had  accepted  the  birth  ;   this  information  went  to  the 
heart  of  this  poor  boy,  in  a  strange  land,  when  too  late 
he  discovered  the  false  friendship  of  his  shipmate,  in 
persuading  him  to  go  with  him  to  Halifax,  and  that  it 
was  only  his  company  and  money  that  he  wanted  on 
the  road,  as  far  as  the   town  of  Windsor.     And  after 
paying  for  his  entertainment  at  this  inn,  he  found  that 
he  had  but  two  dollars  remaining  out  of  the  twenty  they 
started  with,  when  he  summoned  up  all  the  resolution 
that  his  physical  and  mental  powers  were  master  of,  and 
then  obtained  of  his  host  all  the  directions  he  could  for 
the  rest  of  the  road  to  Halifax,  which  his  landlord  in- 
formed him  was  about  forty  miles,  over  a  deep  platform 
of  snow,  and  through  woods,  with  houses  in  some  part 
of  the  road  from  four  to  six  miles  apart,  and  if  he  push- 
ed a-head  he  could  reach  the  half-way  inn  before  the 
day  closed,  as  they  were  at  the  shortest.     (And  being, 
the  writer  believes,  between  the  forty- fourth,  and  for- 
ty-fifth degrees  of  north  latitude,)  and  after  obtaining 
all  the  road  marks  he  could  of  his  host,  he  set  off  by 
himself  through  as  it  appeared  to  him  a  vast  howling 
wilderness,  the  roaring,  and  hollow  sound  of  the  wind 
through   the  dismantled   branches  of  the  trees  as  he 
scudded  along  over  a  glib  railway  of  snow,  appeared 
to  him  the  first  day  of  his  lonely  pilgrimage,  as  if  he 
was  almost  beyond  the  habitations  of  men,  thus  he  made 
"  all  sail/'  as  sailors  say,  that  day,  so  as  to   get  into 
harbour  before   night,  and   every   now  and  then  ex- 
periencing a  subsultory  moving  of  his  heart  for  fear  the 
bears  and  wolves  would  rush  out  of  the  howling  wilder- 


36 

t 

ness  and  destroy  him.  About  the  close  of  the  day  he 
reached  the  half-way  house,  his  stay  at  this  inn,  took 
one  of  his  two  last  dollars.  The  next  morning  he  set 
sail  for  the  port  of  Halifax,  and  the  farm  houses  not 
being  so  far  apart  on  the  latter  half  of  the  road,  he  did 
not  experience  those  oscillatory  vibrations  of*  fear  near 
so  powerful  as  the  day  before,  although  he  experienced 
the  passion  of  fear  of  another  kind,  the  clouds  of  pover- 
ty were  fast  gathering  blackness  in  his  remaining  funds, 
and  he  going  into  a  strange  place,  and  every  person 
a  stranger  to  him  ;  and  knowing  it  would  take  his  last 
dollar  to  pay  his  way  that  night,  drew  the  tears  from 
his  eyes  that  day,  as  his  mind  was  more  or  less  occupied 
with  a  sense  of  his  condition.  Thus  this  day  wore  off, 
and  a  little  after  the  setting  of  the  sun,  he  made  the 
north  end  of  the  city  of  Halifax,  and  knocking  at  the 
door  of  the  first  house  he  came  to,  inquired  for  an  inn 
in  the  town,  and  was  directed  to  one  adjoining  the  Navy- 
yard  ;  the  night  w7as  intensely  cold,  and  his  supper 
was  poor,  and  they  had  put  him  in  a  cold  loft  to  sleep, 
and  the  bed  and  the  fare  was  not  such  as  he  found  at 
the  inns  on  the  road,  which  was  good,  but  the  lad  One- 
simus,  was  small  of  his  age,  and  the  host  or  his  lady, 
put  him  among  the  servants  in  the  kitchen  at  the  second 
table.  But  notwithstanding  this,  as  they  no  doubt  view- 
ed him  as  a  young  sailor  from  New  York,  and  of  course 
had  money  to  pay  his  way,  so  that  they  did  not  forget 
to  charge  him  a  man's  full  price  for  his  supper,  a  cold 
bed  and  breakfast,  which  took  his  last  dollar,  and  after 
warming  himself  by  the  stove  in  the  bar-room  a  short 
time,  he  set  out  to  seek  a  birth  or  any  other  employ- 
ment, he  first  went  along  the  wharves,  and  through  the 
shipping,  all  of  which  had  a  gloomy  and  wintry  appear- 
ance, when  he  found  that  all  shipping  business  was  com- 
pletely embargoed  for  the  winter  season,  so  that  neither 
men  nor  boys  were  wanted  in  any  vessel  in  the  harbour, 
and  as  he  stood  viewing  the  ice  as  it  had  collected  itself 
in  large  bodies,  round  the  wharves  and  shipping  in  the 
harbour,  which  at  that  time  appeared  to  his  young 
mind  more  like  the  ideas  he  entertained  of  the  regions 
near  the  North  Pole,  than  the  winters  he  had  experienc- 


37 

ed  at  Philadelphia ;  and  after  sailing  as  poor  sailors  in 
their  seafaring  or  technical  language  call  it,  up  and  down 
the  wharves  in  the  port  of  Halifax,  during  a  great  part 
of  the  day  in  search  of  employment,  and  not  meeting 
with  the  least  kind  of  encouragement,  and  hunger  and 
cold  at  the  same  time  presenting  to  his  mind  their  gloomy 
and  melancholy  visage,  when  he  now  felt  afresh  those 
oscillatory  vibrations  of  his  almost  bleeding  heart  to 
violently  increase,  and  to  sorrowfully  experience  the 
heart  of  a  stranger  ;  according  as  it  is  written,  "  there 
were  strangers  and  pilgrims  in  the  earth  ;"  so  was  this 
poor  lad,  this  winter  in  the  city  of  Halifax — who  was 
now  in  a  strange  city  without  a  single  friend  or  ac- 
quaintance in  the  place,  nor  one  cent  of  money  in  his 
possession,  and  this  short  day  fast  wearing  off,  when  the 
undulatory  waves  were  tossing  their  angry  surges  of 
human  misery  against  him,  and  almost  foundering  his 
clay  built  tahernacle ;  and  the  dark  clouds  of  distress 
and  hunger  were  fast  collecting  a  dolorous  atmosphere, 
and  the  lowering  portentous  clouds  were  ready  to  open 
the  windows  of  human  wo,  and  pouring  down  their  tor- 
rents of  want  in  one  impetuous  storm,  and  sweep  him 
from  the  face  of  earth  ;  and  in  this  dark  state  of  his 
mind,  without  a  solitary  idea  either  directly  or  indirect- 
ly in  relation  to  the  providence  or  agency  of  a  divine 
Being,  who  in  the  least  degree  has  any  regard  for  the 
distress,  misery,  or  want  of  his  creatures  in  this  lower 
world,  worse  than  Egyptian  darkness  and  the  most 
dense  unbelief  had  overshadowed  his  whole  soul  ;  not- 
withstanding all  the  physical  anguish  that  his  mind  and 
soul  was  passing  under  at  the  moment,  or  in  the  senten- 
tious language  of  the  scripture,  during  this  outward 
storm,  God  nor  his  providence  never  once  passed 
through  his  mind,  nor  entered  once  into  all  his  thoughts : 
our  dear  old  shipmate  will  be  so  kind  as  to  pardon  our 
preaching. 

And  we'll  return  again  to  the  history  of  this  gloomy 
and  almost  melancholy  boy — so  he  continued  his  going 
up  and  down  the  wharves,  till  at  last  he  saw  an  old 
looking  schooner  at  one  of  the  lower  wharves  of  the 
citv,  next  to  the  sea,  and  as  our  watchword  on  board 

E 


38 

is,  you  remember,  "The  wind  blovveth  where  it  listeth, 
a  i      thou  heareth  the  sound  thereof,  but  ean'st  not  tell 
from  whence  it  cometh,  and  whither  it  goeth  ;  so  is 
every  one  that  is  born  of  the  spirit."     So  when  his 
watery  eyes  caught  the  old  vessel,  he  hauled  his  wind 
till  he  got  in  her  wake,  and  setting  all  his  pedestrian 
sails,  he  soon  overhauled  the  old  vessel,  hailed  her  and 
was  invited  on  board,  where  he  found  a  lad  about  his 
own  age  in  charge  of  the  schooner,  unto  whom  he  relat- 
ed his  distress  and  other  embarrassed  circumstances,  and 
that  he  came  from  New  York  with  the  British  army  to 
the  Bay  of  Fundy,  and  had  crossed  over  from  the  town 
of  Annapolis,  near   150    miles,  over  a   deep   snow  to 
Halifax,  and  that  he  knew  no   person  in  the  city,  this 
young  sailor  being  in  the  possession  of  a  little  of  that 
magnanimity  of  soul  for  which  sea- faring  people   are 
generally  characterized,  he  invited  him  into  the  cabin, 
and  got  out  the  wooden  bowl,  with  some  cold  salt  meat 
and  sea  biscuit,  on  which  he  amply  relieved  the  unplea- 
sant vibrations  of  hunger,  when  he  invited  him  to  tarry 
on  board  the  vessel  with  him  all  night ;  and  said  when 
his  master,  captain  Little,  came  on  board  the  ensuing 
day,  he  would  speak  to  him  in  his  behalf:  and  it  came 
to    pass,  the   next  day   that   the    captain    visited  the 
schooner,  when  the  lad,  who  was  his  apprentice,  in- 
formed his  master  of  the  strange  boy  from  New  York, 
and  after  an  interview  between  the  captain  and  Gnesi- 
mus,  it  was  agreed  upon  between  them  that  he  should 
stay  on  board  the  vessel  to  take  care  of  her  during  the 
winter  for  his  meat,  and  his  apprentice  should  go  home 
to  the  captain's  house,  to  do  whatsoever  he  wanted  done 
about  the  same,  and  go  to  school  in  the  evenings. 

This  was  no  doubt  one  of  the  motives  on  the  part  of 
the  apprentice,  which  caused  him  to  take  so  interested 
a  part  in  the  behalf  of  this  young  prodigal ;  but  what 
ever  are  the  motives  by  which  an  agent  acts,  yet  it 
does  not  alter  nor  weaken  the  force  and  truth  of  our 
watchword,  (nor  make  it  the  less  true,)  "The  wind 
bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  thou  heareth  the  sound 
thereof,  &c.  :  and  that  salvation  is  of  the  Lord." 
Therefore  our  old  shipmate  will  clearly  see,  that  to  all 


39 

outward  appearance,  under  a  dark  cloud  of  the  myste- 
rious ways  and  overruling  providence  of  God,  so  that 
by  this  little  arrangement  this  wandering  prodigal  was 
preserved  from  perishing  with  hunger  and  cold,  through 
this  winter ;  and  it  came  to  pass,  that  by  this  time  most 
of  his  clothes  were  getting  old,  and  as  there  was  some 
old  sail-cloth  in  the  vessel,  when  he  by  the  use  of  twine 
and  a  sail-needle,  patched  up  his  old  clothes  in  the  best 
manner  he  was  capable  of,  and  also  made  himself  a  pair 
of  trousers  out  of  some  of  the  old-sails. 

Thus  our  old  friend  will  plainly  discover  that  his  new 
master  who  under  an  allwise  and  gracious  providence,  put 
Onesimus  into  one  of  the  lowest  classes  in  his  school, 
under  president  Providence,  even  a  class  of  poverty 
and  disgrace  in  his  outward  condition  in  this  world, 
like  ancient  Israel  among  the  pots  in  Egypt. 

But  wre  must  be  under  the  unpleasant  necessity  to 
inform  you  that  all  his  poverty  and  outward  wretched- 
ness, never  once  brought  either  the  power,  wisdom,  nor 
any  other  of  the  attributes  of  God  once  to  his  mind  ; 
and  here  indulge  us  to  ask  is  it  not  wonderful  that  the 
scriptures,  the  sacred  oracles  of  heaven  which  are  so 
simple  and  plain,  and  at  the  same  time  so  naturally  sub- 
blime,  speaks  the  language  of  the  hearts  and  consciences 
of  all  mankind,  and  that  the  book  called  the  Bible, 
should  be  so  generally  despised  by  the  great  body  of  the 
children  of  men ;  but  if  we  take  the  wisdom  and  know- 
ledge which  our  eabin  of  understanding  contains,  we 
shall  never  be  able  to  give  a  better  solution  of  the  per- 
verse spirit  and  character,  as  well  as  the  unhappy  con- 
dition of  mankind,  in  all  those  things  which  relate  to 
the  interest  and  salvation  of  their  indestructible  souls, 
than  our  admiral  in  white,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  has 
noted  it  down  in  a  eertain  log-book  written  some  1800 
years  ago,  in  these  very  remarkable  words :  To  wit, 
that  light  has  came  into  our  world,  and  that  men  love 
the  sable  and  deleterious  empire  of  darkness  rather  than 
the  light  of  the  Gospel  of  the  Son  of  God.  We  think 
we  hear  you  exclaim,  why  this  unnatural,  this  unrea- 
sonable choice,  by  the  children  of  men  ;  the  high  ad- 


40 

miral  in  white,  "  who  is  holy,  harmless,  undefiled, 
separate  from  sinners,  and  made  higher  than  the 
heavens,"  gives  us  the  answer,  through  the  speaking 
trumpet  of  his  Gospel,  to  wit,  because  our  deeds  are 
evil ;  so  that  in  the  simple  view  of  the  writer,  all  the 
wise  gentlemen  of  this  age,  with  all  the  taper  lights  of 
natural  philosophy  if  they  ascend  with  Babylon's  vain 
prince,  to  the  sides  of  the  north  in  their  inflated  imagi- 
nations after  a  true  and  correct  solution  from  now  till 
dooms-day,  they  will  never  be  able  to  give  a  wiser  nor 
better  solution  than  the  captain  of  our  salvation  has 
given  of  the  primary  cause  of  our  benighted  choice  : 
light  has  come  into  this  sinful  world,  and  men  love 
darkness  rather  than  the  bright  morning  star  of  immor- 
tality. 

And  now  dear  old  shipmate,  when  we  for  one  moment 
reflect  that  at  last  the  united  power  and  grace  of  God 
should  ever  locate  its  divine  influence  on  the  mind  and 
heart  of  this  young  prodigal,  with  a  mind  so  dark,  so 
ignorant,  and  so  alienated  in  his  affections  from  the  life 
of  God  in  his  soul,  and  that  the  power  of  divine  grace, 
should  at  last  enable  him  to  out-ride  the  storms  of  sin 
and  unbelief,  and  finally  bring  his  weather  beaten  bark 
into  the  port  of  Zion  ;  and  at  last  have  his  name  enrolled 
among  his  saints  on  earth  ;  causes  his  soul  he  trusts,  to 
flow  into  the  elements  of  Paul's  view  of  the  case  in  his 
canticle  of  redeeming  love  to  Titus,  in  these  most  fe- 
licitous words  ;  "  but  after  that  the  loving  kindness  of 
the  love  of  God  our  Saviour  towards  man  appeared,  not 
by  works  of  righteousness  which  we  have  done,  but  ac- 
cording to  the  unmerited  riches  of  his  grace  and  mercy 
he  hath  saved  us  lost  sinners,  by  the  washing  of  regene- 
ration and  the  renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  which  he 
hath  shed  on  us  abundantly  through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Saviour. 

And  as  this  short  piece  of  history,  and  at  the  same 
time  rather  of  a  desultorious  character,  brings  the  ship 
Perseverance  to  the  end  of  the  year  1783  ;  and  indulge 
us  as  the  weather  appears  to  be  a  little  squally  off  our 
weather  quarter  in  the  Gospel  heavens,  and  the  drops 


41 

of  rain  from  the  lowering  clouds  of  adversity  wets  our 
paper,  we  will  close  the  log-book  till  our  next  watch  on 
deck. 

City  of  Halifax,  province  of  Nova  Scotia, 
British  do?ninio?is  :  North  America,  Dec. 
30th.  1783. 


E2 


42 


LETTER    V. 


What  befel  him  in  the  city  of  Halifax,  in  Nova  Scotia,  and  his 
very  near  being  lost  at  sea. 

Bear  Sir: 

My  last  scroll  from  the  log-book  of  the  ship  Perse- 
verance left  Onesimus  on  board  an  old  schooner  in  the 
port  of  Halifax,  where  he  continued  during  the  months 
of  January  and  February  ;  and  when  March  came  in 
the  owner  made  up  his  mind  to  send  the  vessel  to  a 
place  in  South  America  called  Surinam,  and  as  captain 
Little  had  given  him  a  promise  that  he  should  sail  with 
him  that  voyage,  he  had  been  pleasing  himself  more  or 
less  through  the  long  nights  of  that  winter,  as  he  was 
by  himself  on  board  the  vessel,  with  the  felicitous  idea 
of  seeing  the  warm  countries  where  the  oranges,  pine- 
apples, and  other  fruits  of  the  tropical  regions  grew  ; 
when  about  the  20th  of  March,  the  schooner  was  ready 
to  sail. 

When  the  owner  objected  to  the  captain  taking  two 
boys  with  him  so  near  of  a  size  ;  when  his  apprentice 
claiming  his  priority  of  right,  Onesimus  was  left  on 
shore  ;  when  all  his  little  ephemeral  happiness,  that  was 
floating  in  his  mind,  suddenly  spread  its  wings  and  fled 
away.  And  as  the  captain  was  somewhat  displeased  at 
the  owner,  he  told  him  to  go  and  stay  at  his  house  till 
he  returned,  when.he  expected  to  take  the  command  of 
a  new  brig  which  was  building  at  a  place  called  Pas- 
samaquoddy,  and  he  should  sail  with  him  in  the  next 
vessel;  Onesimus  accepted  captain  Little's  offer:  under 
this  new  arrangement,  he  was  raised  to  the  office  of  a 
lady's  kitchen  servant,  when  she  soon  taught  him  to  be 
expert  in  his  new  profession,  or  calling.  But  his  mind  at 
this  time  was  so  low  and  servile,  and  his  physical  and 
mental  powers  so  degraded,  that  by  this  time  he  was 
glad  to  do  anything  for  a  piece  of  bread,  and  the  occur- 
rences which  transpired  during  the  time  he  sailed  un- 
der female  colours,  were  of  such  a  monotonous  character, 
that  it  will  not  remunerate  the  time  of  the  writer  to 


43 

record,  nor  justify  his  making  an  unnecessary  levy  on 
our  brother's  patience  to  read.  And  it  came  to  pass, 
that  in  the  month  of  June,  1784,  captain  Little  return- 
ed to  the  port  of  Halifax,  from  his  voyage  to  Surinam  ; 
the  vessel  proving  so  leaky,  on  her  homeward  bound 
passage,  that  he  gave  up  the  command  of  the  same,  be- 
lieving the  vessel  no  longer  sea-worthy  ;  and  the  brig 
building  at  Passamaquoddy  not  being  launched,  captain 
Little  took  the  command  of  a  large  French  built  sloop, 
of  about  two  hundred  tons,  and  made  a  short  voyage  to 
the  Bay  of  Fundy,  and  took  the  boy  Onesimus  with  him ; 
when  he  thought  to  himself  he  was  in  his  element,  or 
once  more  on  the  borders  of  what  we  call  an  earthly 
paradise,  to  be  at  sea  again  after  being  embargoed  on 
shore  about  six  months.  Thus  you  see  that  providence, 
put  this  young  prodigal  down  in  one  of  the  lowest 
classes  in  his  school — we  should  scarcely  have  believed 
that  president  Providence  had  been  quite  so  severe  with 
the  young  cadets,  before  he  advanced  them  to  the  office 
of  midshipman  on  board  his  gospel  armament,  had  it 
not  been  that  perchance,  or  rather  to  speak  the  truth 
before  the  mast  of  the  ship  Perseverance,  in  overhaul- 
ing >he  old  log-book  and  other  papers  of  the  ship,  that 
we  laid  our  hands  on  an  old  sea  letter,  which  by  some 
of  the  officers  of  the  gospel  armament,  is  said  to  have 
been  written  by  captain  Paul ;  although  there  is  some 
considerable  discrepancy  in  the  minds  of  many  of  the 
midshipmen,  and  other  of  the  minor  officers  of  the  gos- 
pel navy  in  this  our  day,  about  whose  fingers  steered 
or  guided  the  goose  quill,  when  this  sea  letter  was 
wrote  :  be  that  as  it  may,  we  still  believe  the  letter  was 
sent  to  the  old  gospel  armament,  by  the  authority  of 
Jesus  Christ  the  high  admiral :  in  this  sea  letter,  we 
discovered  it  to  be  the  old  uniformed  practice  when 
providence  had  a  special  work,  for  any  of  his  young 
gospel  midshipmen  to  perform  or  any  daring  service  for 
them  to  execute,  that  he  first  drilled  them  by  causing 
them  to  pass  through  the  different  grades  of  poverty 
and  disgrace  in  this  world  ;  and  as  near  as  we  are  able 
to  decypher  the  words  of  the  letter,  its  vocabulary  run 
in  this  style,  when  he  was  referring  to  the  prophets  in 


44 

the  first  rudiments  of  their  education  ;  viz.,  they  wan- 
dered about  in  sheep-skins,  and  goat-skins,  being  desti- 
tute, afflicted,  tormented,  of  whom  this  sinful  world  was 
not  worthy ;  they  wandered  in  deserts  and  in  mountains, 
and  in  dens  and  caves  of  the  earth  :  thus  you  see  that 
this  poor  boy,  made  some  small  advances,  though  at  the 
same  time  at  a  humble  distance  towards  some  of  the  old 
sailors  on  board  the  old  prophetical  armament;  viz.,  in 
his  wandering  over  the  earth,  and  sometimes  destitute 
of  the  means  to  get  a  piece  of  bread,  and  if  he  was  not 
clothed  in  sheep  and  goatskins,  yet  his  clothes  were 
made  of  old  canvass,  or  the  old  sails  of  the  vessel  in 
which  he  stayed ;  but  we  think  we  hear  vibrating  from 
the  cabin  of  the  ship  Perseverance,  your  voice,  avast 
with  your  so  much  preaching,  and  keep  your  eye  on  the 
compass  of  the  ship,  and  don't  let  her  luff  up  in  the 
wind's  eye,  and  then  fall  off  the  wind  so  often ;  old 
shipmate  your  admonition  we  receive  as  correct.  This 
short  voyage  run  off  about  a  month  or  six  weeks,  and 
no  special  occurrence  transpired,  that  would  remune- 
rate the  scribe  to  record,  or  your  precious  time  to  read. 
After  this,  the  sloop  sailed  for  the  coal  mines,  to  a  place 
eastward  of  Halifax,  called  Cape  Britain,  and  what  in 
those  days  were  called  the  king's  mines,  and  brought  a 
load  of  coal  to  the  city  of  Halifax  ;  this  voyage  ran  off 
the  lead-line  of  time  about  six  weeks,  and  was  mostly  of 
the  same  monotonous  character  with  the  former  voyage, 
and  when  the  coal  had  been  discharged  at  Halifax. 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  the  owner  of  the  vessel  and 
captain  Little,  put  their  heads  together  to  cozen  George 
the  third  out  of  a  little  of  his  revenue,  when  they 
cleared  the  sloop  out  of  Halifax,  to  go  to  the  west  part 
of  Nova  Scotia  for  a  load  of  fire-wood  ;  when  the  cap- 
tain sailed  his  vessel  a  few  leagues  to  west  of  the  light 
house,  and  then  shaped  his  course  to  the  eastward,  and 
sailed  to  the  king's  mines  ;  and  bought  a  load  of  coal, 
and  had  it  invoiced* for  the  city  of  Halifax,  and  when 
he  left  Cape  Britain,  he  crossed  over  the  sea  about  for- 
ty or  fifty  leagues,  to  a  small  island  at  the  west  end  of 
Newfoundland,  by  the  name  of  St.  Peters  ;  which  at 
that  time  was  in  the  possession  of  the  French  govern- 


45 

ment,  who  kept  a  small  garrison  of  soldiers  in  the  island, 
over  which  was  located  a  little  grandee,  by  the  honora- 
ry title  of  governor ;  when  it  appeared  that  the  special 
object  the  French  government  had  in  view  in  being  at 
so  great  an  expense  to  possess  a  little  rock  of  a  few 
miles  extent,  appeared  to  be  to  foster  their  fishing  in- 
terest, in  those  seas,  as  they  brought  their  fish  on  shore, 
in  order  to  dry  them,  either  for  a  foreign  or  home  mar- 
ket ;  and  as  this  island  was  a  barren  rock,  they  had  no 
fuel  but  what  was  brought  them  from  the  British  do- 
minions of  Nova  Scotia;  and  when  this  sloop  with  her 
illicit  commerce  on  board  was  on  her  passage  between 
Cape  Britain  and  the  island  of  St.  Peters,  the  vessel 
was  overtaken  with  a  violent  storm,  which  to  all  human 
appearance  was  every  moment  likely  to  send  the  sloop 
and  all  on  board  with  their  unlawful  commerce  to  the 
bottom  of  the  ocean,  (which  is  yet  very  problematical, 
both  to  naturalists,  and  also  to  navigators,  whether  our 
globe  is  a  dense  body  of  matter,  or  its  primary  consti- 
tuent parts  consists  of  water,  if  this  is  the  case,  it  will 
certainly  relieve  the  mosaic  account  of  the  flood  from 
those  objections  which  natural  philosophy  so  often 
arrays  against  the  truth  which  Moses  has  given  of 
there  being  a  sufficient  quantity  of  water  in  our  globe, 
to  cover  all  the  high  hills  and  mountains  on  the  outer 
surface  of  the  earth  w4th  water;  it  is  very  likely,  as  the 
earth  or  land,  does  scarcely  cover  more  than  one  third 
of  the  superficial  surface  of  our  globe,  and  if  our  view's 
are  in  any  way  plausible,  or  in  the  smallest  degree 
tangible,  then  how  very  easy  it  was  for  the  natural 
power  or  laws  of  gravity,  by  being  charged  with  a  little 
more  density,  to  have  caused  the  land  to  sink  in  the 
mighty  waters ;  thus  we  see  the  constitution  of  our 
world  possesses  more  ways  than  one  under  the  influence 
of  a  divine  agency,  to  justify  the  mosaic  history  of 
drownding  the  old  world  of  ungodly  sinners  ;  so  you 
see  we  are  again  falling  off  the  point  of  the  compass  on 
board  the  ship  Perseverance.)  The  sea  ran  mountaine- 
ously  high,  and  the  raging  and  foaming  of  the  waves, 
were  both  majestically  and  awfully  grand  to  behold  ;  and 
about  midway  across,  there  were  several   rolling  waves 


46 

that  came  after  the  vessel  which  seemed  like  distant 
mountains,  which  presented  to  this  heavy  loaded  sloop 
a  perpendicular  wall  in  height  ahove  our  mast  head,  and 
at  the  same  time  their  curling  and  foaming  heads  like 
snow  capped  mountains,  when  they  came  near  the  sloop 
gave  every  indication  that  they  would  break  on  the 
vessel,  in  which  case  it  would  have  buried  the  sloop 
under  a  mountain  of  water,  from  under  which  it  would 
have  been  physically  impossible  for  her  ever  to  rise. 
But  shipmate,  there  was  a  flying  Jonah  on  board,  which 
in  a  few  subsequent  years,  had  the  word  of  the  Lord  to 
deliver  to  a  sinful  world  ;  therefore  he  that  girded  the 
everlasting  hills  together,  bound  by  his  power  also  the 
raging  watery  mountains  together,  till  it  had  passed  the 
vessel  by ;  captain  Little  who  had  followed  the  sea  from 
his  youth  up,  declared  that  he  had  never  seen  so  high 
and  so  awful  a  wave  of  the  sea  in  all  his  life.  Which 
brings  to  our  mind,  that  highly  coloured,  but  natural 
description  of  the  royal  saint  in  a  storm  at  sea, 
in  which  the  Psalmist  is  proving  the  doctrine  of  a 
special  providence  over  the  physical  as  well  as  the 
moral  world,  who  seems  to  have  been  entirely  disre- 
gardless  of  all  the  scientific  speculations  of  modern  phi- 
losophy; when  David  says  that  Israel's  God  command- 
eth  and  raiseth  the  stormy  wind,  which  lifteth  up  the 
waves  thereof,  they  mount  up  to  the  heavens,  they  go 
down  again  to  the  depths,  their  soul  is  melted,  because 
of  trouble.  What  a  living  and  natural  comment  was 
this  storm,  of  the  language  of  Israel's  royal  saint ;  but 
again  we  are  apprehensive  that  you  are  ready  to  call  to 
the  writer  to  make  more  sail,  and  mind  his  helm  and 
compass  a  little  better,  and  not  let  his  fore  and  main- 
topsails  shiver  in  the  wind's  eye  so  often,  which  deadens 
her  way,  and  also  exposes  her  to  danger,  should  the 
ship  be  suddenly  struck  with  a  flaw  of  wind  from  the 
opposite  quarter  of  the  heavens  ;  and  that  is  not  all  the 
evil,  for  if  you  go  on  with  your  luffing  and  falling  off 
the  wind  so  often,  you  will  never  cross  the  line  of  time, 
nor  bring  the  ship  Perseverance  safe  into  the  port  of 
immortality. 

Therefore  don't  bear  away  the  ship  any  more,  after 


47 

mother  Carey's  chickens,  these  are  a  kind  of  sea  or 
waterfowl,  that  chiefly  hover  about  the  tropical  latitu- 
des, and  are  said  by  sailors  to  warn  them  of  their  im- 
pending danger  when  a  storm  at  sea  is  near  at  hand. 
But  see  that  you  mind  your  helm  and  compass  a  little 
better  than  you  have  lately  done,  and  let  our  modern 
star  gazers  spread  their  ephemeral  wings,  and  as  pilot 
Isaiah  calls  to  them  through  the  spirit  of  his  God,  to  go 
on  a  little  longer  with  their  vain  folly,  and  warm  them- 
selves with  the  sparks  of  their  own  kindling. 

Therefore,  let  the  foolish  birds  alone,  till  the  hurri- 
cane of  wrath,  which  their  appearance  in  the  modern 
latitudes  of  the  gospel  seas,  are  portentous  of,  and  is 
very  likely  suddenly  to  overtake  them,  when  there  will 
be  no  ark  of  safety  for  them  to  flee  unto.  Dear  ship- 
mate we  believe  that  you  are  for  once,  very  correct,  so  we 
shall  leave  those  tropical  birds  of  vain  philosophical 
fiplly  to  soar  a  little  longer  over  the  warm  seas  of  tangi- 
ble and  sensual  felicity. 

And  it  came  to  pass,  after  the  storm  was  over  that 
the  sloop  arrived  safe  at  the  little  island  of  St.  Peters, 
where  they  soon  began  to  discharge  the  cargo  of  coal. 
But  we  remark  here  that  through  a  very  singular  cir- 
cumstance, captain  Little  made  this  a  very  profitable 
voyage  to  himself;  viz.,  the  French  chaldron  not  being 
but  about  half  the  capacity  of  the  English,  he  got  double 
measure  allowed  him  for  his  load  of  coal,  or  else  it  were 
owing  to  the  ignorance  and  cupidity  of  the  French  ex- 
cise officers  ;  so  that  captain  Little  obtained  from  them 
a  bill  for  double  the  number  of  chaldron  his  bill  of 
lading  called  for  at  the  king's  mines  at  Cape  Britain, 
which  when  presented  to  the  little  governor,  or  his 
officers,  was  paid  for  in  French  crowns. 

Our  dear  old  shipmate,  will  be  so  kind  as  to  indulge 
us  to  make  a  few  remarks  on  the  careless  administra- 
tions of  despotic  governments,  for  you  know  that  our 
upper  rigging  is  a  little  wild,  if  not  rather  fanciful  ; 
when  we  shall  just  observe,  what  almost  countless  mil- 
lions of  public  money  is  more  or  less,  by  most  all  des- 
potic governments,  exacted  from  the  sweat  and  blood  of 
their  subjects,  and  then  through  the  ignorance,  weak- 


48 

ness  and  cupidity  of  their  public  agents,  are  all  thrown 
away  without  the  least  benefit  to  the  nation  at  large ; 
but  as  your  last  admonition  reminds  us  of  our  bad  steer- 
age, we  will  sail  the  ship  Perseverance  by  them  at  the 
present  time,  and  when  their  voyage  of  life  is  past,  and 
they  come  with  their  log-books  and  other  ship's  papers 
into  the  high  court  of  admiralty,  where  all  will  be  spread 
open  on  the  cloud  capped  mountains  of  eternity,  as  we 
have  read  in  an  old  log-book  found  on  board  an  old 
prisonship  at  anchor  in  the  Isle  of  Patmos,  under  the 
command  of  captain  John,  in  these  significant  words  : 
("  And  I  saw  the  dead,  small  and  great,  stand  before 
God  :  and  the  books  was  opened,  and  another  book  was 
opened,  which  is  the  book  of  life:  and  the  dead  were 
judged  out  of  those  things  which  were  written  in  the 
books  according  to  their  works.  And  the  sea  gave  up 
the  dead  which  were  in  it ;  and  death  and  hell  deliver- 
ed up  the  dead  which  were  in  them  :  and  they  were 
judged  every  man  according  to  their  works :  Revela- 
tions xx.  12-13.)  But  to  return  to  the  boy  Onesimus, 
captain  Little  and  the  sloop  and  the  load  of  coal,  at  the 
Isle  of  St.  Peters  ;  the  money  for  the  load  of  coal  came 
on  board  the  vessel  in  two  bags  of  about  twelve  hundred 
French  crowns  each,  when  the  sloop  sailed  for  an  inlet 
twenty  or  thirty  leagues  to  the  ffest  of  Halifax,  and 
then  took  in  from  sixty  to  seventy  cords  of  fire- wood, 
which  the  owner  had  contracted  for  to  He  ready  for  the 
sloop,  as  a  kind  of  a  cover  slut,  as  poor  sailor's  ladies 
are  in  the  habit  of  sometimes  saying  when  they  are  a 
little  displeased  with  each  other,  so  this  load  of  wood 
was  designed  as  a  cover,  to  cozen  the  custom-house  of- 
ficers of  George  the  third,  out  of  a  little  of  the  king's 
revenue,  at  the  port  of  Halifax  ;  at  which  city  they  ar- 
rived late  in  November,  1784,  and  anchored  a  little 
below  the  town,  about  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening, 
when  captain  Little  ordered  the  boat  to  be  lowered  into 
the  water ;  with  two  of  the  hands,  and  the  boy  Onesi- 
mus, himself  and  the  two  bags  of  French  crowns,  and 
went  up  to  the  city ;  and  when  they  came  to  the  wharf 
the  captain  took  the  two  bags  of  money  with  the  boy 
out  of  the  boat,  and  sent  her  back  to  the  vessel. 


49 

And  when  the  boat  had  left  the  wharf,  the  captain 
took  up  one  of  the  bags  of  money  and  carried  it  up  to 
the  owner's  house,  leaving  the  other  bag  on  the  wharf 
in  the  care  of  the  boy,  and  bid  him  take  special  care  of 
it  till  his  return  ;  in  about  half  an  hour  the  captain  re- 
turned to  the  wharf,  and  ordered  the  boy  to  follow  him 
with  the  other  bag  of  1200  crowns  to  his  house,  which 
was  located  at  some  distance  in  an  opposite  part  of  the 
town.  Dear  old  shipmate,  you  will  grant  that  this  was 
a  very  lucrative  six  weeks  voyage  for  captain  Little, 
besides  his  wages ;  and  as  every  thing  respecting  this 
voyage,  had  to  be  kept  quiet,  the  merchant  nor  the 
excise  officers  of  the  port  of  Halifax,  were  never  the 
wiser  of  this  smuggling  business  we  believe  to  this  day  ; 
and  as  all  the  parties  concerned  have  ere  this  day  gone 
the  way  of  all  earth,  with  the  exception  of  the  boy 
Onesimus,  it  will  do  no  harm  to  relate  the  circumstance. 

The  coasting  trade  being  over,  in  consequence  of  the 
setting  in  of  the  winter,  the  vessel  was  safely  moored  at 
the  wharf  till  the  following  spring  ;  and  as  we  perceive 
the  sand  of  time  is  fast  running  through  the  hour-glass 
of  life,  it  is  time  to  throw  the  log,  and  call  the  mate's 
watch,  and  turn  into,  rest,  and  when  the  writing  breeze 
whistles  through  so^e  of  the  upper  rigging  of  our  mind, 
we  will  try  and  s\0  a  few  more  fathoms  of  our  dolorous 
and  desultorious  spun-yarn,  and  forward  the  same  by 
the  first  opportunity. 

City  of  Halifax,  in  the  British  dominions,  province 
of  jYova  Scotia,  North  America,  December  31s/, 
1784. 


50 


LETTER   VI 


What  befel  him  in  the  city  of  Halifax,  during  the  months  of  Janu- 
ary and  February  of  1785  ;  and  his  very  near  being  lost  in  the 
Bay  of  Fundy,  and  his  arrival  in  the  West  Indies. 

Dear  Sir: 

We  promised  in  our  last  sea  letter,  that  if  a  special 
desultorious  inclination,  located  itself  in  our  main-top, 
(viz.,  our  mind,)  or  whistled  through  the  upper  rigging 
of  our  ship  Perseverance,  that  we  would  try  to  spin  a 
little  more  colloquial  spun-yarn,  or  in  other  words,  note 
down  a  few  of  our  sailor-like  ideas  from  the  log-book  of 
the  ship  Perseverance  ;  and  as  we  perceive  this  fore- 
noon there  is  a  clear  sky,  and  it  being  our  watch  on 
deck,  and  as  the  sea  this  morning  does  not  run  so  high, 
as  to  give  the  ship  too  great  an  undulatory  motion,  we 
think  it  advisable  to  get  out  the  old  inkhorn,  and  trim 
our  goose  quill,  in  order  to  tease  your  patience  with  more 
of  our  views  respecting  the  voyage  of  Onesimus,  in 
search  of  that  wonderful  country,  that  has  never  yet 
been  fully  explored,  and  its  seas  never  been  entirely 
circumnavigated  by  the  wisdom  of  this  dying  world  ; 
which  lays  beyond  the  verge  of  tinflfc 

Our  last  sea  letter  you  no  doubt  remember,  was  dated 
Halifax,  December  31 ,  1784.  The  bag  of  1200  French 
crowns  made  plenty  of  good  living  during  the  remainder 
of  this  winter  at  captain  Little's  house,  and  the  boy 
Onesimus  received  some  new  clothes,  and  now  and  then 
a  little  pocket  money,  which  he  also  took  care  of  for 
to  buy  him  some  articles  of  clothing,  for  he  had  no  pre- 
dilection to  go  with  the  sailors  to  the  inns,  and  at  the 
same  time  he  was  too  young  in  life  to  experience  those 
subsultory  laws  of  our  physical  nature,  to  which  we  ar- 
rive at  a  certain  period  of  our  existence.  And  it  came 
to  pass,  that  about  the  middle  of  March,  1785,  the  sloop 
was  sent  to  a  place  called  Passamaquoddy,  to  take  in  a 
load  of  lumber  for  the  West  India  market,  and  when 
they  had  sailed  almost  in  sight  of  the  harbour,  and  lay 
off  about  the  middle  of  the  mouth  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy 


51 

almost  becalmed,  the  sky  clear,   the  receding  sun  in 
the  west,  and  in  a  few  hours  after  the  daylight  had  fol- 
lowed the  course  of  the  luminous  orb  of  day,  when  the 
horizon  was  overspread  with  night's  sable  empire,  when 
a  most  dreadful  storm  came  down  on  the  bay,  accom- 
panied with  sleet  and  snow,  which  caused  them  to  lower 
and  take  in  all  the  sails  ;  and  let  the  vessel,  as  sailors 
call  it,  scud  under  bare  poles  ;  when  the  smallest  rope 
belonging  to  the  sloop  was  the  size  of  a  man's  wrist  with 
sleet  and  snow,  which  freezing  to  the  sails,  ropes  and 
spars,  made  the  vessel  appear  like  a  glass  chandelier, 
and  made  it  impossible  for  the  sailors  to  do  any  thing 
with  the  vessel,  her  deck  at  the  same  time  being  one 
glare  of  ice  ;  so  that  no  person  could  either  stand  or 
walk  the  deck ;  when  the  storm  continued  to  increase 
in  violence,  and  the  cold  in  its  strength  throughout  the 
night :  and  all  that  the  hands  could  do  to  save  them- 
selves and  the  vessel  was  to  keep  the  stove  in  the  cabin 
as  hot  as  they  possibly  could,  in  order  to  relieve  the 
man  at  the  helm  every  five  or  ten  minutes,  so  as  to  keep 
him  from  perishing  by  the  severity  of  the  weather. 

The  sloop  was  not  only  in  imminent  danger  of  foun- 
dering every  moment,  but  was  also  in  great  danger  of 
being  driven  on  a  lee-shore,  as  there  was  a  strong  cur- 
rent of  4  or  5  mile's  an  hour,  either  setting  in  or  out  of 
the  bay,  and  had  it  been  flood-tide  the  vessel  would 
have  drifted  up  the  bay  so  far  that  according  to  all  the 
physical  laws  of  nature  she  would  have  been  driven  on 
the  lee-shore.     And  the  first  dash  of  the  vessel  against 
that  iron  bound  coast  in  such  a  storm,  would  have  broken 
her  in  a    thousand  pieces.     The  captain  talked  very 
seriously  to  all  the  people  as  they  stood  like  a  small 
flock  of  poor  hapless  creatures  around  the  stove  in  the 
cabin,  acknowledging  to  them,  that  nothing  short  of  an 
over-ruling  providence,   could   save   them   that  awful 
night.     Ancl  after  the  storm  had  passed  over  the  ves- 
sel, the  captain  found  himself  about  twenty  leagues  off 
the  south  west  point  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  clear  of  any 
land;   and  as  the  weather  became  somewhat  mild,  the 
people  went  to  work  and  cleared  as  much  of  the  ice  and 
snow  from  the  decks,  sails  and  rigging  as  they  possibly 


52 

could,  and  made  sail ;  and  in  about  three  days  made  the 
harbour  of  Passamaquoddy,  at  which  place  the  vessel 
took  in  a  load  of  lumber,  and  then  sailed  for  the  West 
Indies,  and  in  about  eighteen  or  twenty  days  she  arrived 
at  an  Island,  which  in  those  days  was  called  Santa  Cruz, 
which  at  that  time  belonged  to  the  Danish  goverment. 
And  there  for  the  first  time,  Onesimus  saw  the  tropical 
regions  where  the  oranges,  pine-apples  and  other  fruits 
of  those  warm  latitudes  grew.  And  after  their  arrival 
the  sloop  was  soon  discharged  of  her  cargo  of  lumber, 
which  was  more  or  less  covered  with  ice  as  they  took  it 
out  of  the  vessel's  hold,  (but  like  the  wise  gentlemen  of 
this  age,  it  soon  disappeared  in  the  presence  of  a  tro- 
pical sun;  just  so  will  all  the  wisdom  of  this  vain  and 
sinful  world  disappear  from  the  insufferable  splendour 
and  refulgent  glory  of  the  sun  of  righteousness  ;  when 
the  affrighted  ghosts  of  Deists,  Atheists,  and  all  the 
other  skeptical  gentlemen  of  the  free-thinking  schools, 
shall  with  everlasting  fear  and  dismay  call  on  rocks  and 
mountains,  to  hide  them  from  the  insupportable  glare  of 
the  countenance  of  the  Son  of  God.)  And  soon  after 
the  lumber  was  discharged,  the  vessel  began  to  receive 
her  return  cargo,  which  chiefly  consisted  of  Santa  Cruz 
sugar ;  no  occurrence  or  incident  took  place  for  about 
two  weeks  that  is  worthy  to  record.  But  one  which 
happened  a  few  days  previous  to  the  vessels  sailing, 
which  was  as  follows :  One  day  as  the  sloop  was  receiv- 
ing her  return  cargo,  captain  Little  was  invited  to  dine 
on  shore  by  the  owner  of  the  plantation  from  which  the 
cargo  of  sugar  came ;  but  before  the  captain  went  on 
shore,  he  called  the  boy  Onesimus  into  the  cabin,  and 
gave  him  the  keys  of  the  liquors,  with  orders  to  give  the 
mate,  and  the  rest  of  the  people,  their  usual  quantity  of 
spirits  through  the  day,  and  cook  and  prepare  their 
meals,  and  then  clean  up  the  cabin,  as  he  expected  some 
company  on  board  in  the  evening ;  and  when  all  the 
captain's  orders  had  been  executed  with  fidelity,  about 
4  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  a  singular  whim  suddenly 
came  into  his  head,  in  order  to  display  to  the  mate  and 
the  rest  of  the  hands  on  board,  the  confidence  the  cap- 
tain had  placed  in  him,  he  went  into  the  cabin,  and  §o% 


53 

one  of  the  captain's  books,  and  came  up  oh  the  after 
deck  of  the  vessel,  and  seated  himself  under  the  awn- 
ing of  the  same,  with  a  book  in  his  hand  ;  when  he  did 
not  long  enjoy  his  felicitous  chair  of  assumed  ease,  be- 
fore it  elicited  the  attention  of  the  hands  who  with  the 
mate  were  at  work  hoisting  in  the  hogsheads  of  sugar, 
when  one  or  more  of  the  sailors  observed  to  the  mate, 
that  if  they  occupied  his  station,  as  the  second  officer 
of  the  vessel,  they  would  soon  make  that  young  fellow 
lay  down  his  book,  and  come  and  put  his  hands  to  the 
fall  and  help  to  hoist  in  the  sugar ;  and  as  the  mate, 
rather  viewed  the  lad  with  a  jealous  eye,  in  consequence 
of  his  being  entrusted  with  the  keys  of  the  liquor,  it 
being  an  article  that  the  mate  had  a  very  strong  predi- 
lection for,  so  much  so,  that  the  captain  had  to  keep 
the  same  under  the  charge  of  the  blacksmith's  daughter: 
and  it  came  to  pass  that  the  pendulus  vibrations  of  jeal- 
ousy in  the  mate's  mind  being  propelled  to  a  higher 
degree  of  velocity  than  usual,  by  the  remarks  and  advice 
of  the  sailors,  so  that  the  mate  put  his  pedestrian  ship 
in  motion,  and  laid  hold  of  a  rope  and  came  after  One- 
simus,  to  coerce  him  to  obey  his  orders  and  come  to 
work,  when  he  still  refused,  and  started  towards  the 
bow  of  the  sloop,  and  perceiving  the  mate  in  his  wake 
and  so  close  hauled  after  him,  that  lie  must  either 
strike  his  colours  and  surrender,  or  spring  over- board  ; 
when  in  the  height  of  his  passion  he  chose  the  latter. 
and  over  the  bow  of  the  sloop  he  went,  and  made  for 
the  shore.  The  sailors  seeing  their  counsel  growing 
into  seriousness,  went  to  the  stern  of  the  vessel,  and  got 
up  the  boat  and  came  after  him,  and  persuaded  him  to 
come  on  board,  and  they  would  let  him  alone,  and  not 
coerce  him  to  work  ;  so  he  went  into  the  boat  and  re- 
turned on  board  the  vessel  again. 

Dear  old  shipmate,  what  a  most  striking  evidence  of 
the  truth  of  the  history  which  Moses  has  given  the 
world  of  the  fall  of  Adam — and  through  his  transgres- 
sion, as  Paul  most  clearly  and  logically  proves,  to  his 
brethren  in  the  church  of  Rome;  his  language  is  so  very 
singular,  and  also  so  specially  adapted  to  the  dark 
mind;  and  vile  passions  of  the  heart  of  this  voung  sin- 

F2 


54 

ner,  that  we  cannot  refrain  from   placing  it  in  your 
view. 

(Wherefore,  as  by  one  man,  sin  entered  into  the 
world,  and  death  by  sin,  and  so  death  passed  upon 
all  men,  for  that  all  have  sinned.  Romans,  v.  12.) 
And  his  daring  conduct  on  this  occasion  justifies  the  de- 
claration of  the  prophet,  can  the  Ethiopian  change  his 
skin,  or  the  leopard  his  spots  ?  then  may  ye  also  do 
good,  that  are  accustomed  to  do  evil.  Jeremiah,  xiii. 
23. 


55 


Figure  1.  The  Mate  with  a  rope  in  his  hand  in  pursuit  of  the  Boy. 
Figure  2.  The  young  sailor  springing  into  the  sea  from  the  Mate. 
Figure  3.  A  sailor  hauling  up  the  boat  to  take  the  wicked  sinner  out 

of  the  water. 
Figure  4.  The  shark  taking  the  sailor's  dinner  out  of  the  net. 

And  it  came  to  pass,  that  in  the  evening  Onesimus* 
having  given  the  hands  and  mate  their  supper,  and 
when  it  was  over  and  the  people  were  all  in  the  fore- 
cabin,  spending  the  evening  in  some  sailor-like  or  de- 
sultorious  conversation ;  when  their  attention  was  sud- 
denly excited  by  an  unusual  undulatory  noise  in  the  sea 
alongside  the  vessel,  which  instantly  brought  all-hands 
on  deck,  for  to  ascertain  the  cause  that  gave  the  alarm : 
after  they  had  looked  round  the  vessel  in  every  direc- 
tion, and  every  thing  on  the  surface  of  the  water  ap- 
peared as  silent  as  death,  as  we  poor  sailors  sometimes 
say,  for  the  want  of  more  elegant  language  to  express 
eur  views  on  things,  in  order  to  communicate  our 
thoughts  to  our  wise  people  on  shore :  and  after  staying 
on  the  vessels  deck  for  some  time,  they  all  retired  below 
again,  wondering  at  that  which  caused  the  alarm,  and 
sailor-like  in  imitation  of  the  children  of  Israel  in  the 
days  of  Moses,  began  to  prophecy ;  or  if  our  old  friend 
thinks  the  author  is  not  fully  justified  in  the  use  of  such 


56 

strong  language,  we  leave  the  longitude  of  scripture 
phraseology,  and  bear  down  on  the  vocabulary  of  hea- 
then mythology  and  say,  each  man  was  trying  to  prog- 
nosticate the  cause  of  the  noisy  phenomena  in  the  watery 
element;  and  after  long  discussion,  and  much  sailor-like 
elocution  by  these  sons  of  old  ocean,  had  been  brought  to 
converge  on  the  watery  alarm,  and  no  one  for  a  long  time 
possessed  the  wisdom  of  a  Solomon  to  call  for  the  sword 
of  common  sense,  to  cut  the  illegitimate  child  of  nature 
asunder  in  order  to  ascertain  which  of  the  two  elements 
were  its  natural  mother,  either  sea  or  earth.  And  it  came 
to  pass,  that  Solomon-like  the  oldest  tar  on  board  rose  up, 
and  calling  for  his  sword  of  common  sense,  asked  the 
boy  Onesimus  whether  he  had  put  any  salt  meat  in  the 
net  that  day,  and  being  by  him  answered  in  the  affir- 
mative, he  went  on  deck  and  drew  the  net  out  of  the 
water,  and  behold  all  the  salt  beef  and  pork  was  taken 
out  of  the  same,  although  the  net  was  made  of  plaited 
rope  as  large  as  the  finger  of  a  man,  and  as  the  people 
on  shore,  are  not  all  of  them  acquainted  with  the  design 
of  putting  their  salt  meat  into  the  sea-water  for  about 
24  hours  before  they  cook  the  same,  it  is  done  in  order 
to  abstract  the  salt  as  much  as  possible,  out  of  the  meat 
before  they  boil  the  same ;  by  this  all  on  board  the  ves- 
sel were  fully  convinced  as  to  the  true  character  of  that 
wonderful  agent  who  caused  the  alarm  and  had  made 
such  a  deleterious  war  on  their  provision  for  the  next 
day  :  now  his  honour's  name  was  a  shark,  that  had  been 
lying  under  the  vessel  all  day,  waiting  for  the  sable 
empire  of  night  to  give  him  an  opportunity  to  take  his 
prey ;  and  in  his  ofiicial  capacity  the  Nimrod,  or  great 
and  mighty  autocrat  of  the  wTatery  world,  but  we  see 
one  trait  in  his  character,  which  has  a  wonderful  adapta- 
tion to  the  strong  colouring  our  Lord  placed  in  the 
view  of  Nicodemus,  that  a  world  of  falling  and  dying 
sinners  loved  darkness  rather  than  light,  because  with 
the  shark,  their  deeds  are  evil.  And  as  it  is  late  in 
the  evening  we  shall  retire  to  rest,  and  should  we  see 
the  light  of  a  new  born  day  we  will  write  you  again  on 
this  gloomy  subject  of  immortality.  Onesimus. 

Island  of  Santa  Cruz,  West  Indies, 
May  20th,  1785. 


57 


LETTER  VII. 

His  return  from  the  West  Indies  to  Halifax,  and  a  voyage  to  the 
Bay  of  Fundy,  with  a  few  remarks  on  the  character  of  the  ofliceri 
who  commanded  a  company  of  British  soldiers,  on  board  the  vessel 
Onesimus  sailed  in  ;  and  a  few  remarks  on  the  great  height  the  tide 
ebbs  and  flows  at  the  head  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  in  the  province 
of  Nova  Scotia,  North  America. 

Hear  Sir: 

Shortly  after  the  shark  affair  had  passed  away  the 
sloop  sailed  for  Halifax,  you  will  indulge  us  to  remark 
that  there  was  a  small  oversight  in  our  last  letter  ;  to 
wit,  that  after  the  mate  and  hands  of  the  vessel,  had  all 
retired  below,  and  the  novelty  of  the  shark  running  off 
with  the  meat  was  a  little  subsided  ;  when  the  mate  and 
sailors  gave  the  boy  a  moral  lecture,  for  the  rashness  of 
his  conduct,  in  springing  into  the  sea  ;  telling  him  that 
the  shark  was  under  the  sloop's  bottom,  at  the  time  he 
went  overboard,  and  that  nothing  but  the  noise  made 
by  the  hands  on  deck  prevented  the  shark  from  making 
his  supper  off  him  instead  of  the  salt  meat ;  when  his 
conscience  for  the  moment  severely  condemned  him  for 
his  rash  conduct. 

And  it  came  to  pass,  that  in  a  few  days  after  their 
sailing  from  the  Island  of  Santa  Cruz,  that  the  sailors 
on  deck  saw  a  large  log  or  a  piece  of  old  timber,  which 
by  its  appearance  had  been  floating  on  the  bosom  of  old 
ocean  many  years,  and  when  the  captain  came  on  deck, 
and  saw  it,  he  called  to  the  sailors  to  get  out  their  hooks 
and  lines,  in  order  for  a  mess  of  fresh  fish  for  a  dinner  ; 
and  as  soon  as  the  vessel  came  near  the  floating  timber, 
the  fish  left  the  same  and  came  round  the  vessel,  when 
in  less  than  hour  they  caught  as  many  fish  as  they  well 
knew  what  to  do  with,  and  among  the  rest  were  five 
dolphins ;  these  beautiful  creatures  when  first  taken  out 
of  the  sea,  or  their  native  element,  exhibit  a  pleasing 
variety  of  the  most  delightful  shades  of  colour,  and  are 
constantly  changing  their  hues,  till  all  their  ephemeral 
beauty  sinks  and  is  for  ever  lost  in  the  shades  of  death  ; 


58 

which  is  certainly  a  very  striking  figure  of  all  the 
ephemeral  glory  of  this  changing  world  ;  but  as  we  have 
already  in  some  sort  expatiated  on  that  idea,  it  is  not 
wisdom  to  go  over  the  same  ground  again  ;  and  a  few 
days  after  taking  the  fish,  captain  Little  called  the  boy 
Onesimus  into  the  cabin,  and  told  him  when  they  ar- 
rived at  Halifax,  if  he  would  consent  to  bind  himself 
till  he  was  twenty-one  years  of  age,  he  would  teach  him 
navigation,  so  that  he  might  one  day  rise  above  the  level 
of  a  common  seaman  ;  and  as  the  boy's  mind  was  fully 
bent  on  a  sea-faring  life,  while  at  the  same  time,  a  life 
on  shore  appeared  to  him,  so  dull,  so  monotonous,  at 
that  period  of  his  life,  that  he  most  willingly  accepted 
the  captain's  ofFer;  and  as  he  was  to  have  been  bound 
when  they  arrived  at  Halifax,  which  took  place  about 
the  20th  of  June,  1785, 

And  it  came  to  pass,  that  when  they  arrived  the 
merchant  or  owner  having  a  freight  in  readiness  to  go 
in  a  great  hurry  to  a  place  called  Windsor,  which  lays 
up  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  the  same  place  where  the  young 
sailor  forsook  him  in  the  winter  of  1783,  as  noticed  in 
our  third  letter. 

And  being  so  hurried  in  discharging  the  cargo  of 
sugar,  and  taking  in  the  freight  for  Windsor,  the  bind- 
ing was  put  off  by  mutual  consent  until  the  sloop  made 
this  short  voyage  ;  one  principal  part  of  her  freight 
consisted  of  a  party  of  British  soldiers,  going  from 
Halifax  to  Windsor,  to  relieve  a  company  who  wrerc 
stationed  at  that  place,  they  were  commanded  by  two 
officers ;  young  Onesimus  saw  nothing  imposing  nor  very 
interesting  in  these  gentlemen,  either  in  their  words, 
or  acts  ;  their  conversation  was  mostly  of  a  desultorious 
shade  of  character,  which  often  caused  them  to  fill  their 
sails,  on  which  were  all  manner  of  fourfooted  beasts  and 
fowls  of  the  air,  when  they  soon  got  into  the  low  and 
dense  atmosphere  of  the  prime  beef,  cheese  and  ex- 
cellent porter,  and  other  good  things  of  old  England  ; 
and  each  officer  having  two  servants  to  wait  on  them, 
so  that  a  great  part  of  their  time  was  occupied  on  ship- 
board, in  giving  directions  to  them  how  to  cook  this, 
that  and  the  other  for  their  different  meals  $  when 


59 

Onesimus  saw  none  of  those  traits  of  character  that  were 
so  remarkably  striking  in  the  youthful  mind  of  Alexan- 
der at  the  age  of  sixteen  years  ;  it  is  said,  or  written  of 
him,  that  this  young  officer  when  in  company  with  the 
Persian  and  other  foreign  ambassadors,  who  came  on 
business  of  state  to  his  father's  court,  that  this  youngster 
did  not  spend  his  time  in  inquiring  after  the  good  fare 
which  the  different  countries  those  gentlemen  represent- 
ed possessed,  in  order  to  entertain  foreign  gentlemen 
who  came  either  on  public  or  private  business,  there 
appeared  something  more  manly,  noble,  and  also  mag- 
nanimous in  this  youth,  than  wasting  his  time  in  making 
a  God  of  his  appetite,  in  inquiring  after  the  sweet- meats 
of  a  foreign  land  ;  but  this  young  lad,  as  an  undesigned 
type  of  one  of  the  youthful  traits  in  our  Lord's  boyhood, 
who  so  wonderfully  astonished  the  profound  doctors  of 
the  Jewish  theology  in  the  temple  with  his  understand- 
ing, questions  and  answers;    just  so   did    this  young 
scion  of  old  Nimrod  interrupt  often  times  the  desultori- 
ous  conversation  of  those  foreign  gentlemen  on  minor 
subjects,  by  inquiring  of  the  Persian  and  other  foreign 
ambassadors,  the  geographical  extent  of  their  master's 
states  and  kingdoms,  with  the  natural  productions  of 
the  soil,  and  their  princes'  physical  and  military  re- 
sources in  time  of  war,  and  the  character  and  condition 
of  the  shortest  and  best  roads  to  their  princes'  empires 
and  kingdoms.     Now  shipmate  it  is  either  written  or 
said,  that  this  youngster's  interrogations  drew  out  from 
the  minds  %f  those  foreigners  this  inflecting  piece  of 
conversation,  when  they  said  to  each  other,  our  master 
has  got  the  silver  and  the  gold ;  but  this  young  scion 
of  our  ancient  father  Nimrod,  had  a  mind  whose  acme 
like  a  cloud  capped  mountain,  rises  far  above  all  our 
master  minds  put  together.     But  casting  our  eye  at  the 
fore-topsail  of  the  ship  Perseverance,  we  discover  it  Is 
shivering  in  the  wind's  eye,  we  will  give  the  ship  the 
wind  a  few  points  free,  in  order  to  fill  her  sails  and  pass 
by  these  red- coats,  young  Alexander,  and  the  Persian 
ambassadors. 

And  it  came  to  pass  after  they  arrived  at  Windsor, 
and  landed  the  two  officers  and  their  men,  there  appear- 


60 

nd  nothing  at  this  place  which  merits  the  scratch  of  the 
giose  quill,  except  the  wonderful  flowing  and  ebbing 
of  the  tide  in  the  Bay  of  Fundy  ;  so  that  at  the  town  of 
Windsor,  a  100  gun  ship  could  sail  up  to  the  town  at 
high  water,  and  at  low  water,  the  bed  of  the  river  is 
quite  bare ;  and  at  the  head  of  this  bay  it  is  said,  that 
the  rise  and  fall  of  an  ordinary  or  common  tide,  was  from 
50  to  60  feet  perpendicular. .  But  as  the  writer  has 
never  studied  natural  philosophy,  he  is  of  course  entire- 
ly unacquainted,  viz.,  scientifically,  with  the  physical 
laws  which  rule  or  govern  the  natural  world,  so  as  to 
define  the  cause  of  this  watery  phenomenon  ;  so  you  see 
dear  old  shipmate,  that  we  are  under  the  im  perious  neces- 
sity of  leaving  the  same  with  ten  thousand  mysterious 
things  and  occurrences,  both  in  the  natural  and  moral 
world;  viz  ,  both  as  to  the  manner  and  modes  of  our 
own  existence,  as  also  the  existence  of  the  whole  race 
of  beings,  which  constitute  the  inhabitants  of  this  mun- 
dane orb,  which  we  no  more  can  comprehend,  than  we  can 
the  nature  of  God  and  the  modes  of  his  existence  ;  as 
our  Lord  wisely  remarked  to  the  Jewish  Rabbi,  "  If  I 
have  told  you  earthly  things  and  ye  believe  not,  how 
then  shall  ye  believe  if  I  tell  you  of  heavenly  things?" 
Therefore  let  the  whole  posse  of  Rabbies  of  the  law  of 
Moses,  and  the  whole  host  of  the  doctors  of  the  chris- 
tian theology  put  their  wisdom  together  respecting  the 
world  of  nature  of  which  they  form  so  small  a  constituent 
part ;  then  how  much  more  must  these  assumed  self- 
created  paragons^kvho  assume  the  appellate  of  masters 
in  Israel,  and  the  most  profound  doctors  of  the  gospel 
of  the  Son  of  God,  if  they  are  sq,  much  in  the  dark  re- 
specting the  mysteries  «f  nature,  how  much  more  so, 
must  they  be  in  the  dark,  except  they  are  taught  of 
God  respecting  heavenly  things,  or  the  blowing  of  the 
wind  of  the  spirit  of  God,  or  the  divine  influence  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  on  the  mind  and  heart  of  every  new  born 
soul,  with  the  ebbings  and  flowings  of  the  waters  of  the 
grace  of  God  ;  and  the  wind  of  the  spirit  in  the  won- 
derful work  of  the  salvation  of  one  sinner  that  is  truly 
born  of  God.  But  as  we  are  again  led  to  cast  our  eye 
at  the  trim  of  the  sails  of  the  ship  Perseverance,  we  see 


61 

her  fore-topsail  shivering  in  the  wind,  which  we  have 
already  promised  to  guard  against  except  prevented  by 
physical  and  moral  causes.     Therefore  about  the  first 
of  September,   1785,  the  sloop   returned  to   Halifax: 
when   captain   Little   promised  the  boy  Onesimus  that 
the  indentures  should  be  executed  in  a  few  days ;   the 
next  day  as  he  was  standing  on  the  deck  of  the  vessel, 
as  she  lay  at  the  end  of  the  wharf,  a  thought  instantane- 
ously rushed  into  his  mind,  that  before  he  should  bind 
himself  an  apprentice  to  captain  Little,  he  would  go 
back   to  Philadelphia  and  see  whether  his  father  was 
still  living,  this  idea  was  so  powerfully  impressed  on  his 
mind,  that  it  caused  him   to  pause  for  a   few  moments, 
when  his  soul  suddenly  experienced  a  strong  desire  to 
see  his  father  and  family  once  more,  if  they  were  in  the 
land  of  the  living.     And  what  makes  it  the  more  re- 
markable is  because  it  was  the  first  time  since  the  day 
he  left  his  father's  house  that  he  experienced  a  solitary 
wish  to   return  home,  notwithstanding  all   the  poverty 
and    dangers    he    had    passed    through,    and    as    these 
thoughts  were   passing  through  his  mind,  he  cast  his 
eye  up  the  wharf,  and  saw  a  person  coming  towards  the 
vessel,  who  was  inquiring  for  a  lad  to  go  as  a  cabin  boy 
in  a  small  brig  that  was  bound  to   Philadelphia,  and  as 
soon  as  he  heard  the  man  pronounce  the  words  he  said  to 
himself  that  he  would  go,  the  person  told  him  the  brig 
was  all  ready,  with  her  sails  loose  at  the  end  of  the  wharf, 
and   there  was  not  a  moment  of  time  to  be  lost,  as  the 
captain  of  the  brig  was  unexpectedly  p^ut  to  a  non-plus, 
in  consequence   that   the   former  cabin    boy  was   that 
morning  suddenly  taken  so  very  iU>  so  that  he  had  to  be 
taken  on  shore  ;  and  that  the  brig  was  now  waiting  to 
obtain  a  boy  to  fill  his  place.      When  Onesimus  desired 
the  person  to  wait  a  few  minutes,  and  went  down  into 
the  cabin,  and  put  his  few  clothes  in  a  small  canvas  bag, 
and  threw  it  over  his  shoulder,  and  followed  the  person 
to  the  brig  forthwith  ;  and  just  as  he  got  to  the  end  of 
the  wharf  where  the  sloop  lay,  captain  Little  met  him 
and    asked    Onesimus  what   was   the   matter,  when   he 
answered  the  captain,  that  he  was  going  to  Philadelphia 
to  see  his  father  5  when  he  was  somewhat  surprised, 

G 


62 

as  he  had,  heretofore,  passed  for  a  fatherless  boy  from 
New  York  ;  captain  Little  observed  that  he  was  sorry 
since  things  about  his  apprenticeship  had  gone  so  far 
that  he  was  now  so  suddenly  going  to  leave  him,  he  said 
he  wished  he  might  do  well  go  where  he  would,  when 
Onesimus  bid  captain  Little  farewell,  and  saw  him  no 
more. 

And  he  went  with  the  person  to  the  brig,  and  as  soon 
as  they  went  on  board  the  brig,  they  cast  off  the  fast 
and  set  sail ;  and  in  less  than  an  hour  from  the  time  that 
it  was  his  full  determination  to  bind  himself  to  captain 
Little,  and  follow  a  sea- faring  life  all  his  days,  did  this 
sinful  prodigal  by  the  wind  of  the  spirit  and  over-ruling 
providence  of  the  most  high  God  which  bloweth  where 
it  listeth,  change  his  mind,  and  what  is  more  remarka- 
ble, that  it  required  the  simultaneous  operations  of  men 
and  things  to  work  together  with  the  cogitations  of  this 
youngster's  mind ;  so  that  in  less  than  an  hour,  the 
brig  passed  by  the  city  of  Halifax,  and  Onesimus  saw 
it  no  more  to  this  day  (March  1839).  But  you  remem- 
ber, that  the  motto  of  the  ship  Perseverance  was  at 
her  departure  from  this  vain  and  sinful  world,  the  wind 
as  we  have  just  said,  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  thou 
nearest  the  sound  thereof;  and  it  was  very  squally  in 
the  providential  heavens  for  about  sixty  minutes  :  and 
now  indulge  us  to  say  we  almost  experience  with  the 
sailors  when  the  shark  ran  off  with  their  dinner  in  the 
harbour  of  Santa  Cruz,  the  spirit  of  preaching  and 
prophesying,  as  we  lay  off  the  coast  of  a  special  provi- 
dence. But  as  we  see  the  sand  of  time  is  fast  descend- 
ing through  the  hour-glass,  we  will  defer  the  discussion 
of  this  mighty  subject,  till  we  go  into  the  drawing-room 
of  lady  chance.  And  when  it  is  our  watch  on  deck 
again  after  that  our  mind  has  taken  a  little  rest  in  sleep, 
we  will  inform  you  of  our  table-talk  with  that  wonder- 
ful lady  Miss  Chance. 

Onesimus. 
To  Elder  Joseph  Maylin.  // 

City  of  Halifax,  province   of  Nova   Scotia, 
British  dominions  ;  land  of  North  America 
September  30/A,  1783. 


63 


No  1.  The  city  of  Halifax,  in  the  province  of  Nova  Scotia. 

No.  2.  The  fort  on  a  hill  which  commanded  the  city,  and  the  flag- 
staff, with  its  different  colours  to  show  the  character  of  the  ves- 
sels that  were  approaching  the  harbour. 

No.  3.  The  brig  in  which  Onesimus  was  leaving  Halifax  in. 

No.  4.  The  guard  ship  laying  at  anchor  off  the  city  of  Halifax. 


LETTER  VIII. 

His  returning  home  like  the  prodigal  to  his  father's  house  near  the 
city  of  Philadelphia,  and  his  conversation  with  lady  chance,  about 
the  doctrine  of  a  special  providence. 

Dear  Sir: 

We  shall  endeavour  to  bear  in  mind  your  very  sea- 
sonable admonition  to  keep  the  ship  Perseverance  as 
near  the  wind  as  possible,  by  bracing  the  yards  and 
trimming  her  sails,  so  that  she  may  lay  her  course  if 
possible,  in  a  straight  line  to  the  world  of  spirits,  and 
country  of  immortality :  but  being  sensible  that  you  sir, 
have  some  knowledge  of  the  sea-faring  business  and 
have  yourself  sailed  half  round  our  mundane  globe,  in 
which  case  it  places  us  before  you  in  a  more  pleasing 
situation,  like  it  did  Paul  before  a  Roman  prince  ;  viz., 
knowing  you  to  be  expert  in  matters  and  things  relating 


64 

to  old  ocean  ;  now  you  know,  sir,  that  current,  head 
winds,   shoals,   islands,  and    promontories,   very   often 
cause  the  mariner  to  go  cut  of  a  straight  course,  and  as 
we  have  got  the  ship  Perseverance  into  a  whirlpool  of 
strange  and  conflicting  currents,  and  as  the  wind  from 
the  gospel  heavens  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  we 
hear  the  sound  thereof  in  the  upper  rigging  of  our 
minds,  you  will  no  doubt  permit  us  to  put  another  hand 
to  the  helm,  while  we  shall  take  a  seat  on  the  after  hen- 
coop of  the  ship,  as  the  most  retired  place  on  board,  to 
communicate  and*  interchange  our  views  and  ideas  re- 
ciprocally together  ;  and  keeping  our  sea  vocabulary, 
always  at  your  service,  and  while  the  hour-glass  is  not 
more  than  half  run  its  sand  through  the  same,  we  will 
try  and  spin  a  few  fathoms  of  rather  a  desultorious  con- 
versation with    you   respecting    that   very    handsome, 
graceful,  and  highly  accomplished  lady,  madame  chance, 
who  they  say  has  for  these  last  three  hundred  years, 
since  science,  and  modern  philosophy  has  made  such 
wonderful  discoveries  in  the  natural  world,  assumed  to 
herself  the  appelative  of  the  queen  of  nature,  and  de- 
clares that  her  family,  and  all  her  progenitors  are  the 
eternal  laws  of  nature  :  and  as  her  ladyship  revolves 
round  the  higher  circles   in   life,  and   this   queen  of 
nature  they  say,  has  captivated  almost  all  our  wise,  well 
bred,  and  well  educated  people  ;  her  pleasing  manners, 
and  alluring  graces,  renders  her  company  so  very  de- 
lightful, and  at  the  same  time  so  fascinating,  that  when 
the  doctors,  philosophers,  deists,  and  atheists,'  once  are 
admitted  to  one  of  her  levees,  or  are  introduced  into  her 
wise  company,  it  requires  more  than  stoical  virtue  and 
self  denial  to  absent,  or  withdraw  themselves  from  her 
presence,  so  that  lady  chance  by  her  silken  cords  leads 
her   admirers  captive — fast    chained   to    her   chariot 
wheels;    such  as   kings,  princes,  statesmen,   lawyers, 
physicians,  and  the  profound  philosopher,  so  that  those 
and  mijlions  of  others,  in  the  second  ranks  of  life,  who 
all  are  more  or  less  desirous  to  be  in  her  felicitous  com- 
pany, the   harmony  of  her  words  moves  on  like  the 
motion  of  the  spheres,  as  she  sings  her  love  notes, 
which  far  exceed  the  sky-lark  of  old  England,  and  as 


65 

it  respects  the  variety  of  her  anthems,  she  sings  to  the 
Gods  of  inert  matter,  she  outdoes  the  mocking-birds  of 
North  America  ;  when  the  sweet  cadence  and  melodi- 
ous accents  of  her  voice  gently  undulates  the  ambient 
air  that  encircles  our  globe,  so  that  the  fragrancy  of  her 
breath,  like  the  zephyrs  from  off  the  spicy  islands  in 
the  eastern  seas,  gives  a  delightful  sensation  to  the  ol- 
factory nerves  of  the  mariners  as  they  sail  by  those  spicy 
islands,  just  so  the  zephyrs  from  off  these  new  discover- 
ed islands,  in  the  vast  sea  of  modern  philosophy,  gives 
a  delightful  fragrance  to  the  breath  of  this  wonderful 
lady  (viz.,  the  doctrine  of  chance).  But  dear  shipmate, 
what  a  ruthless,  cruel  and  savage  monster  is  death  to 
cut  asunder  with  his  broad  sabre,  the  conjugal  ties  of 
these  loving  and  felicitous  people.  We  are  justified  in 
exclaiming,  O  !  ye  fates,  what  tongue  can  tell,  or  what 
pen,  can  such  barbarities  record,  of  the  wanton  slaught- 
ers of  death's  ruthless  sword,  in  parting  these  loving 
ones  asunder. 

But  we  see  it  is  time  to  give  the  ship  a  little  more 
press  of  sail,  and  leave  the  lady  and  her  admirers  astern, 
and  now  in  our  saiTor-like  fancy  we  have  brought  all 
our  ideas  to  converge  in  our  exordium,  on  one  point  of 
our  compass,  or  test  of  a  special  providence  ;  permit 
us  to  open  the  same  under  three  short  heads,  so  that 
from  this  part  of  Onesimus'  experience,  we  shall  en- 
deavour to  prove  by  the  simultaneous  actings  of  several 
special  things,  in  the  course  of  one  fleeting  hour,  by 
which  you  may  be  able  to  see,  that  if  one  of  the  spokes 
in  this  small  wheel  of  providence  had  been  wanting, 
then  the  whole  chain  would  have  most  assuredly  parted 
asunder,  and  the  salvation  of  that  young  ungodly  sinner 
miscarried  for  ever  ;  so  that  in  the  language  of  a  poet, 
we  may  justly  exclaim,  on  what  a  slender  thread  hangs 
everlasting  things ;  and  indeed  it  would  appear  to  our 
weak  vision  here  below,  that  the  great  author  of  a  wise 
and  over-ruling  providence  has  in  his  infinite  wisdom, 
suspended  us  on  a^single  hair,  or  a  sudden  turn  of 
thought,  or  the  passing  impression  of  a  new  idea,  the 
salvation  of  countless  millions  of  poor  sinners  in  this 
probationary  state.     Here  indulge  us  to  remark,  that 


66 

we  believe,  the  review  of  which  when  we  arrive  on  the 
heavenly  shores  will  create  those  springs  (promised  by 
our  Lord)  of  living  waters,  to  which  he  will  lead  his 
blood  bought  church,  unto  when  he  will  fill    the  ce* 
lestial  fountains,  which  are  most  beautifully  arranged 
along  the  rich  pasture  grounds,  which  are  located  in 
the  champaign  country  that  lays  in  the  fore  ground  of 
the  throne  of  God ;    so  that  when  the  redeemed  and 
blood  washed  soul,  shall  cast  the  eye  of  grateful  reflec- 
tion over  ten  thousand  temptations,  and  dangers,  both 
seen  and  unseen ;  that  an  allwise  and  guardian  provi- 
dence has  led  it  through,  will  no  doubt  greatly  enlarge 
the  joys  of  its  paradisical,  its  glorified  state,  and  will  en- 
tirely remove  all  monotonous  sensations  from  the  mind 
and  soul  of  the  believer  forever :  so  that  the  spirit  of 
the  righteous  after  it  has  ambulated  from  one  part  of 
the  starry  heavens,  or  the  vast  dominion  and  empire  of 
glory  to  another,  and  has  seen  an  infinite  number  of  the 
most  singular  curiosities  which  are  in  the  museum  of 
glory,  so  that  it  may  possibly  be  that  the  wonders  of 
creation,  might  in  process  of  time,  perhaps  become 
monotonous,  and  in  a  great  measure  lose  it  former  no- 
velty.    Our  old  shipmate  will  admit  that  our  views  are 
both  rational,  and  tangible  from  all  our  past  experience 
in  this  our  mundane  state ;  which  leads  us  further  to 
admire  the  glorious  genius,  and  wisdom  in  the  scheme 
of  the  gospel,  which  shall  forever  present  to  each  re- 
deemed sinner's  view,  a  deep  and  humiliating  sense  of 
the  low  and  degraded  condition  that  sin,  unbelief  and 
ignorance  has  reduced  us  unto  in  this  lower  world,  with 
an  abiding  sense,  also,  of  the  many  hair  breadth  es- 
capes we  have  had  personally,  more  or  less  of  losing  our 
lives  before  we  were  brought  to  the  saving  knowledge 
of  the  truth  ;  we  say  that  a  lively  sense  of  these  things 
will  forever  remove  all  dulness  and  insensibility  from 
the  spirit  in  its  glorified  state,  and  will  no  doubt  cause 
the  church  with  Israel's  royal  bard,  who  when  on  earth 
perched  himself  on  the  branches  of  the  tallest  cedars  of 
Zion  ;  so  that  not  the  least  doubt  remains  in  our  minds 
that  David's  Lord  and  Master,  of  whom  he  sung  so 


67 

sweetly  here  below,  with  his  sonorous  and  variegated 
notes,  has  given  him  the  royal  honour  to  lead  that 
special  part  of  divine  worship  in  the  church  in  her  tri- 
umphant state,  where  with  those  excursive,  and  discur- 
sive powers  of  mind  which  David  possessed  here 
below,  shall  then  receive  some  new  oscillatory  energies 
from  the  springs  of  living  waters,  who  will  there,  with 
his  celestial  harp  and  golden  lyre,  followed  by  patri- 
archs, prophets,  apostles  and  the  lesser  grades  of  the 
blood  washed  congregation,  that  have  sailed  through 
the  gospel  seas  here  below,  will  then  sing  more  loud, 
more  sweet,  and  more  melodious,  the  royal  saint's  re- 
markable canticle  of  praise,  and  humble  gratitude  to 
the  God  of  his  spiritual  Israel ;  to  wit,  I  will  sing  of 
mercy  and  of  judgment  unto  thee  0  Lord  will  I  sing; 
followed  with  this  chorus,  who  hath  remembered  us  in 
our  low  estate,  for  his  mercy  endureth  forever.  And 
dear  old  shipmate,  shall  this  young  sinner,  Onesimus, 
ever  forget  to  sing  his  share  of  this  humble  canticle  of 
praise,  and  strike  his  lyre  in  a  new  song  of  praise,  that 
he  at  last  should  be  favoured  with  the  high  privilege 
with  the  beloved  disciple  John,  of  exclaiming,  Behold, 
what  manner  of  love  the  Father  hath  bestowed  upon  us, 
that  we  should  be  called  the  shis  of  God.  Then  God 
forbid,  that  he  should  ever  forget  that  all  important 
hour  of  his  existence,  when  in  the  forenoon  about  the 
tenth  of  September,  1785,  standing  on  the  deck  of  a 
vessel  lying  at  the  end  of  a  wharf  in  the  city  of  Halifax, 
province  of  Nova  Scotia,  with  a  mind  as  dark  as  hell 
itself;  viz.,  in  things  respecting  the  nature,  attributes, 
work  and  true  character  of  the  God,  which  the  scrip- 
tures reveal ;  and  at  that  all  important  crisis  with  a  full 
determination  to  bind  himself  to  the  sea-faring  business, 
and  that  in  a  moment  of  time,  so  powerful  a  revolution 
should  take  place  in  his  mind. 

And  our  dear  old  shipmate,  no  doubt  will  logically 
grant,  that  it  required  that  while  this  thought  was  act- 
ing on  his  mind,  the  simultaneous  agency  of  several 
persons  and  things  to  strike  the  iron  while  it  was  hot, 
in  order  to  weld  this  link  of  the  chain  of  a  special  pro- 


68 

vidence  together ;  now  you  see  that  the  first  stroke  of 
this  tilt-hammer,  on  this  small  hair  link  in  this  young 
sinner's  case,  was  the  sudden  change  of  his  mind  while 
standing  on  the  deck  of  the  sloop,  the  second  stroke 
was  the  person  who  at  that  instant  of  time  was  coming 
down  the  wharf,  enquiring   (or  a  lad  to  go  as  a  cabin 
boy  in  a  brig  that  was  ready  to  sail  immediately  for 
the  city  of  Philadelphia  ;  the  third  stroke  of  the  ham- 
mer of  providence  was,  that  the  former  boy  belonging 
to  the  vessel  was  at  that  instant  of  time  taken  so  very 
ill,  that  he  had  to  be  taken  on  shore.     Now  when  we 
look  at  this  small  link  that  connects  the  vast  chain,  to 
us  of  a  complicated,  but  yet  a  special  providence  to- 
gether;   notwithstanding  all  the  fastidious  risibility  of 
lady  chance,  and  her  admiring  gallants,  who  are  con- 
tinually casting  their  rolling  eyes  on  her  beauty,  and 
with  the  admirers  of  the  scarlet  queen,  who  the  apostle 
John  saw  at  the  Use  of  Patrnos,  a  id  heard  the  kings,, 
and  princes,  and  other  great  wise  and  rich  men  of  the 
earth,  admire  her  beauty,  riches,  honour  and  glory  ; 
when  by  the  incense  of  their  fealty  to  her  queenship> 
which  causes  the  loving  queen  to  reciprocate  to  their 
canticle  of  praise,  by  graciously  responsing,  I  set  as  a 
queen   forever,   and   my    felicitous  throne,   and   regal 
power  shall  never  be  overcast,  nor  shaded  by  the  dark 
clouds  of  widowhood,  and  sorrow  shall  never  enter  my 
palace  gates :   so  you  see  this  vain  queen  and  all  our 
modern  grandees  of  the  skeptical  schools  fully  and  most 
cordially   reciprocate   their   views   to   each  other,  and 
disregard  all  the   judgments  of  heaven,  against  an  un- 
godly world  ;   but  we  shall  say  no  more  at  this  time 
about  the  doctrine  of  chance. 

And  as  there  was  nothing  took  place  in  Onesimus' 
passage  to  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  which  merits  an 
entry  into  the  log-book  of  the  Perseverance  ;  about  the 
last  of  September,  1785,  he  arrived  safe  at  his  father?s 
house,  and  found  him  and  his  family  all  well,  after  an 
absence  of  two  years  and  four  months  separation,  during 
which  time  neither  party  had  heard  a  single  word  from 
each  other;  and  as  the  sand  of  time  is  fast  descending 
through  the  hour-glass,  we  will  take  the  pld  inkhorn 


69 

and  log-book  below,  and  when  we  have  a  clear  mental 
sky,  we  shall  note  down  a  few  more  ideas  in  the  old 
log-book  of  the  ship,  and  send  them  by  the  first  oppor- 
tunity. 

Onesimus. 

City  of  Philadelphia j  land  of  North  America, 
September  30th,  1785. 


70 


LETTER  IX 


Onesimus  goes  again  to  sea,  with  a  short  history  of  his  voyage  to 
see  the  great  Tyre  of  our  modern  times  ;  viz.,  the  city  of  Lon- 
don, when  he  was  veiy  near  being  lost  going  out  of  the  capes  of 
the  Delaware. 

Dear  Sir: 

Our  last  epistolary  communication  to  you  brought 
this  young  prodigal  home  to  his  father's  house,  when  it 
came  to  pass,  that  in  a  few  weeks  the  novelty  of  his  re- 
turn soon  subsided,  and  he  again  experienced  those 
subsultory  sensations,  like  a  fish  when  it  is  first  taken 
out  of  its  natural  element  5  when  he  wished  to  be  on 
old  ocean  again,  as  persons  and  things  on  shore  soon 
begin  to  wear  a  monotonous  aspect,  and  it  appeared  so 
unlike  the  changing  scenery  of  a  sea-faring  life,  which 
is  more  or  less  presenting  to  the  vision  of  sailors  some 
new  object.  When  he  informed  his  father,  that  he 
could  not  content  himself  on  land,  and  must  go  to  sea 
again,  when  in  a  few  days,  his  father  obtained  a  birth 
for  him  as  a  boy  before  the  mast,  in  the  ship  Harmony 
of  the  port  of  Philadelphia,  commended  by  one  captain 
Villet,  and  bound  to  the  city  of  London.  And  she 
sailed  about  the  twentieth  of  November,  1785  ;  wrhen 
he  again  viewed  himself  as  happy,  to  be  once  more  on 
the  watery  element ;  and  when  the  ship  had  but  just 
cleared  the  capes  of  the  Delaware,  and  it  being  after 
sunset,  she  was  suddenly  overtaken  with  a  violent  squall 
of  wind,  which  had  very  near  overset  her ;  when  all- 
hands  were  called  from  below  to  take  in  the  sails,  when 
Onesimus  and  another  tad  went  up  to  take  in  the  fore- 
top-gallant-sail,  and  as  the  sea  was  rough  and  the  action 
of  the  vessel  was  rather  wild,  it  made  the  boys  sea-sick, 
which  instantly  deprived  them  of  their  wonted  strength, 
which  rendered  them  unable  to  take  in  the  sail,  and  the 
wind  filling  the  sail,  and  raising  it  like  a  balloon  above 
the  head  of  Onesimus,  and  he  being  at  the  same  time 
on  the  lee-yardarm,  so  that  he  dare  not  let  go  his  hold 
of  the  toppenlift ;  and  in  this  way  he  hung  with  his 
strength  almost  gone,  in  consequence  of  the  deadly 
sickness  at  his  stomach. 


No.  1.  The  ship  Harmony  struck  with  a  squall  of  wind  going  out 
of  the  capes  of  the  river  Delaware. 

No.  2.  Onesimus  hanging  suspended  on  the  lee  fore-topgallant  yard- 
arm  of ihc  ship. 

No.  3.   The  sailors  taking  in  the  sails  of  the  ship. 


The  other  lad  being  on  the  windward  yard-arm  of 
the  ship,  got  into  the  mast,  and  went  down  on  decks, 
leaving  his  young  shipmate  in  his  perilous  situation  un- 
able to  get  into  the  mast  of  the  ship  ;  and  she  at  the 
same  time  having  a  heavy  careen  ;  and  there  he  hung, 
until  all  the  other  sails  were  taken  in  that  was  necessa- 
ry for  the  safety  of  the  ship  ;  and  the  hands  seeing  the 
fore-topgallant-sail  still  flying  in  the  wind,  when  two  of 
the  sailors  came  up,  and  got  Onesimus  into  the  mast: 
and  took  in  the  sails,  and  the  prodigal  by  some  means 
got  down  on  deck,  but  so  faint  and  exhausted  that  he 
had  to  go  below. 

But  how  he  was  saved  from  his  perilous  situation  he 
is  unable  to  this  day  distinctly  to  explain  ;  but  we  still 
believe  it  to  be  by  the  agency,  of  a  greater  power  than 
the  arm  of  that  delicate  lady  whose  family  escutcheon 
is  chance  :  but  in  the  case  of  this  young  prodigal  we  are 
led  to  exclaim  with  Jonah,  "  salvation  is  of  the  Lord." 
His  escape  from  a  watery  grave  that  evening,  made 


72 

some  serious  impression  on  his  mind  for  a  few  days;  but 
like  the  nine  leprous  men  in  Luke's  gospel,  he  soon  for- 
got this  singular  interposition  of  providence,  and  just 
like  the  leprous  men,  he  also  experienced  no  kind  of  a 
predilection  in  his  mind  or  heart  at  that  time,  to  return 
and  give  the  glory  to  God.  After  these  things  the  ship 
pursued  her  voyage,  and  a  stormy  passage  she  had,  and 
all  the  sailors  were  wet  every  day  and  night  for  near 
three  weeks,  with  a  northwest  gale  of  wind  near  all  the 
way,  and  the  sea  ran  mountain ou sly  high  ;  and  after 
their  leaving  the  capes  of  the  Delaware,  in  about  twen- 
ty-four days  the  ship  made  the  land's  end  of  old  En- 
gland, and  in  about  six  days  after  this  the  ship  Harmony 
got  up  the  river  Thames,  and  moored  opposite  a  place 
called  in  those  days  Iron  gate,  near  the  Tower  of  Lon- 
don about  the  last  of  December,  1785. 

Onesimus  we  must  observe  was  with  many  others  in 
the  pursuit  of  some  object  under  the  sun,  to  make  him- 
self what  he  thought  happy ;  but  he  with  countless  mil- 
lions of  the  sons  of  guilty  Adam,  was  at  that  time  a 
stranger  to  the  straight  gate,  and  the  narrow  way  that 
leads  to  true  and  lasting  fidelity.  And  as  the  sand  of 
the  year  is  run  out,  we  shall  close  the  log-book  of  the 
ship  Perseverance,  and  when  the  wind  of  the  spirit  is 
a  few  points  free,  and  the  mental  sky  is  somewhat  serene, 
we  have  a  few  more  items  to  communicate  to  you  about 
what  befel  Onesimus  while  prosecuting  his  voyage  to 
the  country  of  immortality,  and  write  by  the  first  mail. 

Onesimus. 

To  Elder  Joseph  Maylin. 

London,  December  31s/,  1785. 


€Z 


ju  £j  i    1  iL  It    A  . 

Contains  a  short  history  of  his  views  of  mankind,  while  he  was  on 
ship-board  in  the  river  Thames,  just  below  London  bridge,  where 
he  saw  so  much  of  the  depravity  of  human  nature,  that  were  the 
Bible  as  mute  as  a  church  mouse,  on  the  doctrine  of  the  fall  of 
man,  the  thing  itself  is  so  self-evident,  that  if  men  would  let  com- 
mon sense  but  regain  its  empire  in  the  human  understanding,  all 
further-argument  on  the  subject  would  be  superfluous. 

Dear  Sir: 

Our  last  epistolary  spun-yarn  left  this  young  prodi- 
gal in  the  city  of  London,  the  modern  Tyre  of  the  old 
world  ;  and  it  came  to  pass,  that  during  the  first  two 
months  of  the  year  1786,  that  many  new  scenes  of  vice, 
were  continually  presenting  themselves  to  his  view,  by 
all  the  people  belonging  to  the  ship,  and  lads  the  sons 
of  merchants,  who  went  out  in  the  vessel  to  get  some 
little  insight  and  experience  into  sea-faring  business, 
and  as  their  friends  had  supplied  them  with  money, 
these  lads  with  the  mates  and  crew  of  the  ship,  almost 
every  evening  brought  on  board  those  tangible  objects 
which  are  more  or  less  calculated  to  give  excitement  to 
certain  subsultory  passions  and  physical  laws,  which  in 
the  antecedent  days  of  our  youth  we  are  more  or  less 
strangers  to ;  now  these  objects  swarm  on  the  river 
Thames,  which  passes  this  Tyre  of  the  European  world, 
and  as  the  frogs  crept  up  into  the  palaces  of  old  Egypt 
in  the  days  of  Moses,  just  so  these  poor  unhappy  crea- 
tures by  thousands  crept  on  board  the  shipping,  which 
are  always  in  the  port  of  this  great  city;  what  mind, 
dear  old  shipmate,  which  believes  in  the  purity  and 
love  which  the  gospel  inspires,  but  must  give  an  inward 
sigh,  and  heave  a  piteous  groan  at  the  awful  degrada- 
tion, in  which  sin  has  involved  these  beautiful  creatures, 
that  shew  forth  such  wisdom  and  design,  both  in  their 
physical  and  mental  powers  ;  and  that  they  should  be  so 
debased  by  sin ;  therefore  for  arguments  sake,  we  will 
give  our  Bible  to  the  moles  and  bats,  by  way  of  a  com- 
promise to  the  doctrine  of  infidelity,  and  then  without 

H 


74 

the  Bible,  the  fallen  and  sinful  state  of  mankind  is  as 
clear  and  self-evident,  as  the  noon -day  sun.     But  to 
return  to  our  subject,  these  deleterious  frogs,  as  we  have 
already  observed,  were  invited  on  board  by  all   the 
ship's  crew,  with  the  exception  of  the  subject  of  our 
biography  ;  so  that  those  characters  never  excited  any 
oscilatory  impulse  in  his  mind  towards  them,  but  the 
more  he  saw  in  the  ship  that  winter,  of  the  vice  refer- 
red to,  the  more  he  was  disgusted  with  the  debasement 
of  our  fallen  nature  ;  so  that  by  an  over-ruling  and  re- 
straining providence,  he  was  enabled  to  pass  by   the 
house  which  the  wisest  of  the  Hebrew  sages  has  in  vivid 
colours  painted  on  the  sign  which  is  in  front  of  her 
palace  gate,  her  paths  leads  to  the  house  of  destruction, 
and  her  ways  to  the  chambers  of  death.    But  we  do  not 
hold  him  up  as  a  paragon  of  virtue  in  his  being  kept 
from  this  vice  during  this  winter,  but  it  was  certainly 
owing  to  some  secret  cause  arising  from  what  we  would 
characterize    preventing   grace,    which    gave    him    a 
natural  disgust  to  a  particular  vice,  and  leads  us  once 
more  to  observe,  that  in  giving  this  part  of  the  history 
of  this  young  ungodly  sinner,  we  do  not  wish  to  raise 
him  on  the  stilts  of  pharisaical  pride,  for  it  is  very  evi- 
dent, that  Onesimus  did  not  act  in  this  case  from  any 
respect  or  regard  either  to  the  laws  or  holiness  of  the 
divine  character,  as  he  does  not  distinctly  remember 
that  the  idea  of  offending  the  divine  being  ever  once 
entered  his  benighted  mind  ;  but  to  return,  about  the 
first  of  March,  captain  Villet  took  the  prodigal  to  his 
boarding- house  on  Tower- hill,  to  bring  a  small  box  on 
board  the  ship,  and  as  he  was  passing  over  Tower- hill, 
with  the  box  on  his  shoulder,  he  saw  a  person  hra  sable 
garment  with  a  few  people  collected  round  him,  Onesi- 
mus said  to  himself  that  he  would  sheer  up  alongside  and 
hear  what  this  gloomy-looking  fellow  had  to  say  for 
himself,  and  after  listening  a  few  minutes,  when   he 
thought  to  himself  that,  that  melancholy-looking  fellow's 
music  was  too  dull  for  him  to  be  listening  to,  when  he 
hauled  his  pedestrian  ship  up  into  the  wind's  eye,  and 
then  shaped  his  course  towards  Irongate,  when  at  that 
instant  the  captain  came  up,  and  bid  him  hasten  on 


75 

board  with  the  package,  and  at  the  same  time  giving 
him  a  mariner's  curse,  for  stopping  to  listen  to  every 
babbler  he  saw  in  the  streets,  when  the  captain  observ- 
ed to  a  gentlemen  in  his  company,  that  the  young  lad  had 
the  gospel  on  his  shoulder,  which  he  never  had  had  in 
his  heart ;  it  was  a  small  package  of  pocket  bibles  for 
some  person  in  Philadelphia,  which  drew  from  captain 
Villet  those  pertinent  remarks  ;  but  the  gentlemen  with 
equal  truth  and  propriety,  might  have  applied  his  sally 
of  wit  to  his  own  case,  as  the  language  he  used  in  com- 
manding Onesimus  to  hasten  on  board,  equally  proved 
that  the  spirit  and  grace  of  the  gospel  had  no  possession 
of  his  heart  at  that  time,  any  more  than  the  boy  he 
cursed  ;  but  we  here  remark,  that  the  weakness  of  sin- 
ful and  fallen  man  is  such,  that  we  condemn  others  for  that 
which  we  are  guilty  of  ourselves. 

And  in  a  few  days  ofter  this,  the  ship  having  receiv- 
ed her  return  cargo,  about  the  15th  of  March,  1786, 
dropped  down  the  river  Thames,  to  a  small  town  called 
Gravesend,  some  where  about  twenty  miles  below 
London,  at  which  place  the  ship  was  to  receive  on 
board  one  William  Bingham  Esq.,  his  lady,  two  young 
daughters,  and  four  male,  and  four  female  servants,  and 
also  a  physician ;  for  whose  accommodation  Mr.  Bing- 
ham engaged  the  whole  cabin,  and  the  state-rooms  of 
the  ship  ;  and  at  this  place  the  ship  took  in  the  sea- 
stores  for  this  rich,  and  in  those  days,  a  highly  distin- 
guished American  family ;  the  stores  in  part  consisted 
of  all  kinds  of  poultry  which  are  generally  taken  to  sea, 
and  also  sheep,  hogs,  and  a  cow  for  her  milk,  and  also 
liquors  of  all  descriptions,  with  many  other  articles, 
which  the  captain  thought  necessary  to  give  entertain- 
ment to  his  cabin  passengers.  And  the  ship  being  all 
ready,  and  the  grandees  all  on  board,  she  weighed  her 
anchor,  and  sailed  for  Philadephia. 

Oxesimus. 
To  ElderJoseph  MAyLiN. 

Gravesend,  on  the  river  Thames,  Old 
England,  March  2lst,  1785. 


76 


LETTER   XI 


A  short  history  of  the  ship  Harmony,  commanded  by  captain  Villet, 
on  her  passage  from  London  to  Philadelphia;  and  when  air 
half  passage,  the  ship  was  nearly  dismasted. 

Dear  Sir  t 

Our  last  left  Onesimus  at  a  place  on  the  river  Thames 
named  Gravesend,  with  the  ship's  anchor  weighed  and 
all  ready  for  sailing,  on  the  22d  instant  she  dropped 
down  the  rest  of  the  river,  and  made  sail  for  America. 
And  for  about  two  weeks  of  the  passage  things  went  on 
without  any  occurrence  to  mar  the  pleasure,  comfort 
and  accommodation  of  all  the  cabin  passengers,  with 
the  exception  of  a  little  sea-sickness,  with  some  of  the 
ladies  for  two  or  three  days  ;  and  as  they  were  in  the 
full  enjoyment  of  the  monotonous  rounds  of  good  eating 
and  drinking, (but  indulge  us  in  this  place  to  remark, 
that  these  wise  and  rich  passengers  were  insensible  as 
the  brutes  that  perish,  that  they  were  under  any  moral 
obligation  to  the  great  author  of  all  our  mercies,  and 
although  the  power  and  grandeur  of  the  majesty  of 
God  is  so  imposingly  displayed  on  the  mighty  ocean, 
when  the  little  ark  called  a  ship  is  in  the  midst  thereof, 
so  that  we  are  almost  ready  to  conclude  that  a  rational 
and  intelligent  being  could  not  refrain  from  exclaiming, 
how  great  and  marvellous  are  thy  works,  Lord,  God  of 
hosts ;  who  would  not  fear  thee,  and  worship  at  thy 
footstool  here  on  earth ;  and  then  with  David  the  royal 
saint,  in  profound  humility  exclaim,  Lord  what  is  man, 
that  thou  should  even  notice  him?)  But  we  return  to 
our  history  of  tjie  passage,  the  winds  were  a;*little 
variable  but  mostl ^favourable,  so  that  in  about  fourteen 
days,  the  ship  made  thalf  her  passage  from  London  to 
Philadelphia  ;  when  on  the  morning  of  the  sixth  of 
April,  1786,  and  the  captain's  watch  as  it  was  called, 
the  second  mate  discovered  a  strange  sail  on  the  ship's 
starboard  quarter,  when  the  lad  Onesimus  was  sent  to 
inform  captain  Villet  of  the  same,  who  soon  made  his 


77 

appearance  on  deck,  and  when  he  perceived  the  stran- 
ger rather  gained  on  his  ship,  although  the  stranger 
was  only  sailing  under  his  courses,  and  reefed  topsails ; 
captain  Villet  ordered  Onesimus  and  another  lad  to  go 
aloft  and  loose  and  set  the  main-topgallant-sails,  the 
wind  was  not  more  than  one  or  two  points  free,  and  af- 
ter the  sun  rose,  (as  we  poor  ignorant  and  unphiloso- 
phical  sailors  say,  with  the  poor  illiterate  captain  of  the 
Lord's  host,  has  said  once  before  us,  which  has  caused 
our  modern  philosophers,  deists  and  atheists,  to  extend, 
or  dilate  their  risible  muscles,  so  as  to  produce  a  high 
pressure  of  the  foolish  steam  of  their  laughter  at  the  old 
Hebrew's  commander  of  the  Lord's  host,  for  the  want 
of  a  perfect  knowledge  of  modern  astronomy  on  his 
tongue,  when  he  commanded  the  sun  and  moon  to  stand 
still  ;  dear  old  shipmate,  suffer  us  to  express  ourselves 
by  way  of  condolence,  what  a  great  pity  the  mighty 
God  of  Jacob,  did  not  postpone  his  greatest  of  all  pro- 
digies, or  miracles,  until  the  prolific  womb  of  time  had 
given  birth  to  an  army  of  these  paragons  of  modern 
wisdom.) 

And  the  sails  were  set,  the  wind  increased  in  strength 
and  hauled  more  ahead,  so  that  the  ship  lay  her 
course  as  sailors  say,  almost  in  the  wind's  eye,  which 
caused  the  ship  Harmony  under  a  heavy  pressure  of 
sail  to  labour  hard,  in  a  short  head  sea  which  soon  pro- 
duced a  wild  or  crazy  actio.i  in  the  ship,  and  at  the 
same  time  straining  her  masts  and  rigging.  And  after 
straining  the  ship  under  a  heavy  press  of  sail  for  about 
an  hour,  during  which  time  the  lad  Onesimus  was  by 
the  captain  sent  to  the  steward,  for  several  glasses  of 
gin-sling,  an  article  the  captain  when  at  sea  was  rather 
partial  to,  but  more  especially  in  stormy  weather,  as  it 
helped  to  pass  away  that  rather  tardy  and  slow  creep- 
ing jade  called  time;  this  article,  viz.,  the  gin-sling, 
soon  gave  an  oscillatory  motion  to  his  blood,  which  soon 
flew  into  the  wheels  of  his  imagination,  and  made  them 
fly  round  with  the  greater  velocity,  so  that  the  captain 
saw  not  the  danger  the  ship  and  masts  were  in ;  the 
boatswain  and  the  experienced  crew  of  the  ship  became 
seriously  alarmed  for  the  safety  of  the  ship,  and  prayed 

H2 


78 

the  chief  mate  to  go  and  inform  of  her  danger ;  which 
he  did  :  but  the  reply  was,  there  is  no  cause  of  alarm, 
followed  with  a  command  to  Onesimus,  to  bring  him 
another  small  glass;  and  just  as  he  had  received  the 
same,  a  heavy  head  sea  struck  the  ship,  and  away  went 
the  foremast  by  the  board,  taking  with  it  the  main-top- 
mast close  by  the  cap  with  all  the  sails  as  they  were 
set,  into  the  sea,  and  leaving  the  ship  a  complete  wreck 
in  a  moment  of  time.  This  sudden  shock  instantly 
brought  all  the  male  passengers  on  deck,  and  excited 
an  alarming  sensation  in  the  mind  of  the  chief  lady  and 
her  four  maids,  who  came  out  of  their  state-rooms  as  far 
as  the  cabin  stairs,  to  ascertain  the  cause  of  so  great  an 
excitement  throughout  the  ship  ;  and  at  the  time  of  this 
disaster,  the  strange  ship  had  got  a  considerable  dis- 
tance ahead  of  the  Harmony,  which  when  her  captain 
saw  that  she  was  dismasted,  he  put  his  ship  about,  and 
came  to  her  assistance,  and  kindly  tendered  to  captain 
Villet  all  the  aid  in  his  power,  and  to  stay  by  his  ship,. 
so  that  if  she  was  in  any  danger  he  would  take  the  pas- 
sengers and  dew  on  board  his  own  ship  ;  captain  Villet 
requested  th  stranger  to  stay  a  short  time  with  him, 
and  then  ordered  the  carpenter  to  examine  the  pumps, 
and  finding  that  the  hull  of  the  vessel  was  perfectly 
sound,  and  having  -a  spare  topmast  or  two.  on  board,  he 
thanked  the  stranger  for  his  kind  attention  to  him  and 
all  on  board,  and  informed  him  that  his  ship  was  sea- 
worthy, and  that  he  had  everything  on  board  to  refit 
himself:  when  the  stranger  bid  him  farewell  and  Wish- 
ed him  safe  into  port;  the  strange  sail  proved  to  be  a: 
copper  bottomed  ship  belonging  to  Virginia. 


79 


No.  1.  The  ship  Harmony  as  she  lay  dismasted. 

No.  2.   The  Virginia  ship  which  came  to  her  relief. 
No.  3.   Tile  poor  cow  that  was  thrown  overboaid,  swimming  after 
the  ship.. 


After  this  the  carpenter  with  the  seamen  went  to 
work  day  and  night,  and  in  three  or  four  days  they  got 
an  old  topmast  lashed  to  the  stump  of  the  foremast,  and 
made  as  much  head  sail  on  the  ship  as  they  could  with 
the  means  they  possessed;  and  the  mizenmast  was  left 
entire  :  and  while  the  ship  lay  without  sail  she  rolled  so 
hard,  that  the  poor  cow  became  so  chafed  that  they 
threw  her  overboard  alive,  as  they  did  not  wish  to  dis- 
tress the  tender  sensibilities  of  the  chief  lady  on  board, 
in  killing  the  cow  ;  the  poor  animal  followed  the  ship  a 
long  time  by  swimming,  till  at  last  she  fell  asleep  in 
death  and  sunk  in  a  watery  grave. 

The  jurymast  being  finished  they  made  sail  on  the 
ship,  but  very  seldom  could  propel  her  through  the 
water,  more  than,  from  three  to  four  miles  an  hour, 
which  of  course,  made,  all  the  people  on  ship-board, 
wear  rather  a  dult  aspect.  But  as  captaia  Villet  in 
order  to  give  every  facility  to  the  arrangement  and 
satisfactory,  accommodation  of  his  cabin  table,  he  engag- 


80 

ed  a  coloured  person  for  his  steward  ;  but  he  had  one 
fault,  to  wit,  that  he  was  simple  enough  to  be  a  believer 
of  the  doctrine  of  the  Bible ;  so  the  outward  piety  of 
this  descendant  of  Ham,  soon  elicited  the  attention  of  all 
the  cabin  passengers,  but  more  especially  the  chief  lady 
of  the  cabin  ;  who  would  very  often  with  her  harmoni- 
ous tongue,  create  a  gentle  breeze,  and  on  the  little 
rolling  waves  which  her  ephemeral  breath  would  raise, 
were  seen  like  the  flying  fish  of  old  ocean  ;  such  grace- 
ful and  pertinent  inuendos  as  these,  our  steward  is  so 
over  righteous  that  he  will  make  saints  of  us  all,  if  we 
are  not  on  our  guard  ;  and  in  many  other  witty  and  per- 
tinent inuendos,  did  this  wise  lady  let  fly  her  female 
artillery,  at  this  sable  devotee  to  the  altar  of  the  gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ ;  so  that  this  poor  coloured  steward  at 
times  scarcely  knew  what  he  was  doing,  which  of  course 
caused  some  depreciation  in  the  arrangement  and  en- 
tertainment of  the*  cabin  table,  which  soon  elicited  and 
brought  into  actual  service,  a  company  of  little  com- 
plaints, from  the  pendulous  tongue  of  this  fair  lady  ; 
which  she  caused  gently  to  vibrate  on  the  drum  of  the 
captain's  ear  ;  to  wit,  that  the  steward  did  not  give  that 
satisfaction  which  he  had  in  the  former  part  of  the  pas- 
sage, and  as  a  matter  of  course,  his  religion  and  small 
Bible,  had  to  be  summoned  before  the  bar  of  her  lady- 
ship's delicate  appetite,  and  then  brought  in  guilty,  in 
being  accessary  in  this  mysterious  defalcation  ;  and  as 
the  captain  was  more  or  less  wearied  with  the  lady's 
importunities  forom  day  to  day,  he  sent  for  Onesimus, 
knowing  that  he  had  sailed  out  of  Nova  Scotia  in  small 
vessels,  and  expected  he  had  some  little  experience  in 
cooking  and  cabin  business,  and  told  him  that  he  wish- 
ed him  to  go  into  the  cabin  and  help  the  steward  to  get 
things  in  a  little  better  order;  when  he  was  well  pleased 
with  the  ofFer,  knowing  that  he  should  get  better  fare 
in  the  cabin  than  before  the  mast,  as.  the  crew  of  the 
ship  had  to  be  a  little  restricted  in  their  provision  and 
water,  as  they  could  not  tell  how  long  the  voyage  would 
last.  The  next  morning  Onesimus  took  line  flour  and 
butter,  and  made  small  biscuit  and  baked  them  well, 
and  took  them  warm  to  the  breakfast  table,  for  which 


81 

he  received  the  chief  lady's  praise  as  a  person  that  un- 
derstood his  business  :  this  little  compliment  from  so 
great  a  lady,  stimulated  him  to  more  assiduity,  so  that 
in  the  course  of  a  few  days  the  cabin  was  regenerated 
in  its  appearance  ;  which  pleased  the  captain  so  well, 
that  he  took  him  a-one-side  and  told  Onesimus,  that  if 
he  would  take  charge  of  the  cabin  altogether  he  would 
unship  the  steward  and  give  him  his  birth  if  he  thought 
he  was  able  to  manage  the  cabin  business  himself;  he 
answered  the  captain  that  as*the  voyage  was  drawing  to 
close,  and  he  viewed  himself  too  young  for  such  a 
charge,  but  that  he  would  do  the  best  he  could  to  make 
the  cabin  as  agreeable  to  Mr.  Bingham  and  his  lady  as 
he  possibly  could,  when  the  captain  acquiesced  with  his 
views  in  this  business ;  and  the  lad  had  plenty  of  good 
fare  to  the  end  of  the  passage.  And  it  came  to  pass, 
a  few  days  after  this,  and  it  being  a  pleasant  day,  after 
dinner  was  over,  Mr.  Bingham,  his  consort,  the  physi- 
cian and  captain  Villet,  went  all  on  deck  to  enjoy  the 
gentle  sea  breeze ;  Mrs.  Bingham  called  Onesimus  and 
desired  him  to  go  and  ask  the  steward  for  the  index  of 
some  work  she  was  reading,  but  he  being  so  exceeding- 
ly ignorant  of  the  character  of  books  in  general,  that  he 
forgot  the  title  of  the  work,  and  asked  the  steward  for 
the  index  of  the  bible,  when  he  went  on  deck  and  re- 
turned the  steward's  answer  to  the  lady,  that  there  was 
no  index  to  the  Bible  in  the  cabin ;  when  the  lady  in- 
stantly communicated  his  blunder  to  the  captain,  phy- 
sician, and  her  consort,  when  it  simultaneously  raised 
the  flame  of  their  risibility  to  the  fevered  acme  of  a 
roar  of  laughter,  in  poor  stupid  Onesimus.  But  he 
took  special  care  not  not  to  name  that  conscience  dis- 
turbing book  in  her  ladyship's  audibility  any  more  ;  but 
you  remember  dear  old  shipmate,  that  our  watchword 
on  shipboard  during  the  voyage  of  the  ship  Perseverance, 
was  to  be  the  wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  thou 
hearest  the  sound  thereof;  so  that  you  see  the  wind  was 
dead  ahead  in  this  cabin,  in  the  midst  of  deists,  and 
atheists,  so  that  it  looked  very  dark  and  squally  in  the 
wind's  eye,  and  there  appeared  very  little  hope  that 
this  youngster,  in  his  circumnavigating  voyage  would 


82. 

ever  discover  the  land  of  immortality ;  but  God's  ways 
are  not  as  ours,  nor  his  thoughts  as  ours. 

But  to  return  to  the  cabin  of  the  ship  Harmony, 
about  a  week  or  ten  days  after  this  stream  of  risibility 
the  lady  poured  out  on  the  head  of  this  stupid  lad's 
asking  for  the  index  of  the  Bible  5  dinner  being  over 
the  captain  and  Mr.  Bingham  rose  from  the  table  and 
went  on  deck,  leaving  the  physician  and  lady  setting  at 
the  table,  in  some  colloquial  or  desultorious  conversa- 
tion together;  and  the  subject  of  our  little  history  was 
standing  close  by  the  cabin  door  in  waiting  to  remove 
the  wines,  dessert  and  other  liquors,  from  off  the  table 
m  to  their  usual  place  of  safety  ;  when  the  lady  made  a 
pause  for  a  few  moments*,  and  then  pronounced  these  all 
important  words:  doctor,  what  think  you  of  Christ? 
when  the  doctor  with  the  etiquette  of  a  well  bred  gen- 
tleman of  the  age  of  reason,  respectfully  replied : 
madam e,  I  believe  Christ  to  have  been  an  artful  and 
designing  person,  who  took  the  advantage  of  the  igno- 
rance and  gross  superstition  of  the  times?  in  which  he 
lived  to  promulgate  his  doctrine  of  the  souPs  immortali- 
ty in  the  world,  in  order  to  disturb  the  present  felicity 
of  mankind  :  when  the  lady  with  a  show  of  female  wis- 
dom and  etiquette,  kindly  responded  to  the  doctor :  sir 
your  views  of  the  character,  person  and  doctrines  of 
Christ,  are  in  accordance  with  my  own ;  and  I  believe 
that  when  we  die,  there  will  remain  no  more  of  us  than 
there  does  of  the  poultry  in  the  coops  on  deck ;  when 
the  lady  further  observed  to  the  physician,  that  for  a 
lady,  about  sixty  years  in  this  life  was  the  extent  of  fe- 
male happiness,  and  that  she  had  no  desire  to  live  any 
longer  than  she  could  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  this  world ; 
when  the  physician  and  lady  said  no  more  on  the  sub- 
ject of  Christ,  and  the  soul's  immortality. 

And  it  came  to  pass,  that  as  Onesimus  stood  in  wait 
till  this  gentleman  and  lady,  had  reciprocally  inter- 
changed their  views  to  each  other — on  their  text,  what 
think  ye  of  Christ?  that  the  subject  was  brought  with 
much  interest  to  his  mind,  as  also  the  doctor's  shrewd 
and  learned  reply ;  so  that  he  never  after  this  discourse 
could  for  any  length  of  time,  banish  the  lady's  text  of 


83 

what  think  ye  of  Christ,  from  his  mind  ;  and  it  being 
the  first  time  for  about  seven  years,  that  he  had  thought 
either  of  Christ  or  his  soul's  immortality  ;  viz.,  the  ser- 
mon he  had  heard  the  Rev.  gentlemen  preach  in  1779, 
from  who  is  the  king  of  glory,  when  he  wept  and  pray- 
ed for  a  few  weeks  :  thus  our  dear  old  shipmate  may 
see,  that  when  the  almighty  wishes  the  aid  of  officious 
man  in  the  great  work  of  a  solitary  sinner's  salvation,  he 
has  always  the  most  suitable  and  efficacious  means  under 
his  own  control,  and  if  so  in  the  case  of  this  ignorant 
and  stupid  Onesimus,  how  much  more  so,  when  his  time 
shall  fully  come  for  filling  the  earth  with  the  knowledge 
of  his  truth,  and  glory  of  the  gospel  of  his  Son  :  so  that 
once  more  we  are  led  to  hear  our  watchword  whistling 
through  the  rigging  of  the  ship  Perseverance,  the  wind 
of  the  spirit  of  God  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  but  it  is 
the  Lord  that  must  open  the  adder's  ear  of  sinful  man, 
to  hear  the  sound  thereof. 


8* 


No.  1.  The  ship  Harmony,  commanded  by  captain  Villet,  sailing 
under  jurymasts  from  London  to  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  with 
a  young  prodigal  on  board. 

No.  2.  The  lady  asking  the  doctor  what  he  thinks  of  Christ. 

No.  3.  The  wise  physician  (a  disciple  of  the  age  of  reason,)  giving 
the  lady  his  views  of  the  person,  character  and  doctrine  of 
Christ. 

No.- 4.  Onesinus  listening  at  their  profound  wisdom,  in  their  ex- 
patiating on  the  doctrine,  person  and  the  character  of  the  Son 
of  God,  when  the  holy  spirit  fastening  their  discussion  of  the 
subject  on  his  mind,  which  he  could  never  shake  off. 


A  JSote  to  the  wise  ladies,  who  live  in  this  wonderful 

age. 

Dear  ladies,  when  the  indulgent  providence,  has  been 
so  kind  to  you,  as  to  place  you  in  this  dying  and  sinful 
world,  above  the  wants  and  privations  of  the  poor,  and 
your  mind  has  been  more  or  less  cultivated  by  educa- 
tion, so  that  when  you  are  seated  round  the  festive 
board,  on  which  is  spread  the  creatures  of  God  ;  don't 
do  nor  say,  as  the  physician  and  lady  did  on  board  the 
ship  Harmony,  in  1786 ;  viz.,  be  cautious  how  you 
bring  out  the  Lamb  of  God,  and  place  him  in  the  midst 
of  the  decanters  filled  with  wine  on  the  festive  board, 


85 

nor  as  they  did  place  a  fooPs  cap  on  his  head,  and  call 
an  artful  knave  ;  how  much  more  ladies,  would  it  be  be- 
coming your  delicate  nature  and  angelic  form  and  finer 
sensibilities  of  your  sex,  would  be  such  ideas  as  these 
passing  through  your  mind,  and  gliding  off  your  sweet 
tongues,  which  would  give  a  fragrance  to  the  ambient 
air  that  surround  your  persons,  and  cause  God  and  an- 
gels to  love  and  admire  you ;  when  all  thy  mercies,  Lord, 
my  rising  soul  surveys,  why  are  not  all  those  softer  pas- 
sions, with  which  God  hast  so  wonderfully  distinguish- 
ed our  sex,  transported  into  wonder  love  and  praise  ; 
and  may  the  lady's  text  be  so  ingrafted  into  your  minds, 
so  that  you  may  never  be  able,  to  shake  it  off  in  time, 
nor  to  all  eternity,  and  the  grace  and  spirit  of  the  Lord 
enable  you  to  give  a  more  happy  exposition  of  the  text 
than  the  lady  and  physician  gave  of  it,  on  board  the  ship 
Harmony,  in  April,  1786.  And  may  Israel's  God,  give 
light  to  your  mental  vision,  and  direct  the  eye  of  your 
souls  to  converge  all  their  energies  on  that  glorious  and 
divine  person,  whom  the  princely  pen  of  one  of  Israel's 
wisest  kings  has  painted  in  all  the  glowing  colours, 
which  either  nature  or  art  contains,  when  his  rich  and 
excursive  mind  flies  over  the  vast  museum  of  nature's 
wonderful  works,  and  also  all  the  exhibitions  of  art,  in 
order  that  his  excursive  powers  of  mind,  might  grasp 
some  figure  or  imagery,  either  in  earth  or  heaven  to  set 
forth  the  person  and  glory  of  Jesus  Christ,  before  his 
beloved  spouse  the  church,  in  order  to  draw  her  heart 
and  affections  from  off  the  ephemeral  joys  of  a  time 
state;  when  his  spouse,  viz.,  the  church,  points  us  to 
Christ  the  bridegroom  leading  the  spouse  along  the 
banks  of  the  river  of  life,  and  directing  her  attention  to 
every  exhibition  of  the  works  and  power  of  God,  and 
every  expression  of  the  personal  glories  of  Jesus  Christ, 
so  when  the  Lord  discovers  that  his  bride  is  so  trans- 
ported with  his  glory  and  beauty,  that  the  holy  fire 
rises  on  the  altar  of  her  devout  soul,  and  carries  her  out 
of  sight  of  all  created  objects  ;  when  her  sparkling  eyes 
and  rolling  vision  simultaneously  converges  on  his  God- 
head and  exclaims  ;  but  still  at  the  same  time  she  seems 
to  want  some  more  expressive  language  than  her  earth 

I 


86 

born  tongue  can  in  her  militant  state  command  ;   he  is 
altogether  lovely  :  when  the  Lord  observing  the  soft  and 
delicate  constitution  of  his  blood  bought  bride,  to  sus- 
tain her  here  below,  when  the  Lord  takes  the  golden 
phial  filled  with  myrrh,  frankincense,  and  other  aro- 
matic spices  of  the  east  of  the  paradise  of  God,  and 
gently  presenting  the  same  to  the  olfactory  nerves  of 
her  blood  washed  soul,  when  she  instantly  revives,  and 
says  his  fruit  is  sweet  to  her  taste :    May  the  reader's 
soul  catch  the  zeal  and  love  of  the  church,  and  exclaim, 
his  loveliness  my  soul  prepossesses  and  left  no  room  for 
any  other  guest ;  dear  reader,  the  choice  of  this  impor- 
tant text  of  holy  writ/by  a  lady  on  board  the  ship  Har- 
mony, for  her  and  the  physician  to  investigate,  is  one 
of  the  first  magnitude  under  the  sun,  and  is  equally 
worthy  the  serious  attention  of  all  the  reflecting  powers 
of  the  human  mind  ;  yes,  the  grandeur  and  rising  im- 
portance of  this  text  will  in  the  great  theatre  of  a  coming 
world,  elicit  the  profound  attention  of  men  and  angels, 
which  people  the  vast  empire  of  the  worlds  of  glory, 
when  his  friends  and  enemies  shall  hear  his  voice  as  the 
sound  of  many  waters,  then  will  the  gay  lady  on  board 
the  ship  Harmony,  in   1786,  learn   that  there  remains 
something  more  of  the  human  subject  after  death,  than 
of  the  poultry  on  the  deck  of  the  ship  Harmony  ;   and 
the  fastidious  physician  with  all  his  skeptical  brethren 
will  then  learn,  when  perhaps  too  late  for  their  eternal 
happiness,  these  two  all-important  traits  in  the  wisdom, 
power  and  character  of  Christ ;  first,  that  he  isthe  only 
physician  of  a  sin-sick  soul,  and  the  other  tr^|t  in  his 
person  and  character  is,  that  they  shall   then  learn  to 
their  eternal  undoing  that  Christ  was  no  artful  deceiver 
of  mankind,  likewise  that  he  will  not  followT  in  the  wake 
of  thousands  of  earthly  physicians,  and  bury  with  them 
all  his  imperfect  work  under  ground,  for  the  want  of  a 
perfect  knowledge  of  their  disease,  and  how  wisely  to 
apply  the  balm  of  Gilead  in  all  their  diversified  cases, 
so  that  he  will  not  do  as  they  have  done  in  thousands  of 
cases,  bury  their  blunders  under  the  sods  of  the  valley. 
Dear  old  shipmate,  in  that  day  he  shall  show  the  fastidi- 
ous and  scoffing  gentlemen  of  the  eighteenth  and  nine- 


87 

teenth  centuries,  that  he  who  declares  he  can  measure 
the  waters  of  the  sea  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand,  can  also 
with  equal  ease,  analyze  the  whole  of  our  little  globe  of 
water  and  earth,  from  its  centre  to  its  circumference ; 
and  find  an  immortal  spirit  for  the  sons  and  daughters  of 
sinful  Adam  ;  and  their  bodies  too,  notwithstanding  all 
the  deleterious  revolution  through  which  the  body  shall, 
or  may  have  passed  in  this  militant  state,  then  shall  the 
weight  and  solemn  importance  of  these  five  little  words, 
what  think  ye  of  Christ,  arise  in  all  their  native  gran- 
deur, when  all   the  passing  glory  of  proud  Egypt,  old 
Assyria,  Chaldea,  Media  and  Persia,  Greece  and  migh- 
ty Rome,  with  the  nations  of  the  earth,  that  have  in  a 
greater  or  less  degree  rose  out  of  the  last  iron-bound 
empire  are  no  more,  then  shall  the  crest  of  his  Godhead 
out- dazzle  all  created  glory,  either  in  earth  or  heaven  ; 
then   we    humbly    ask,  who    shall  wear   the    foolscap, 
Christ  and  his  friends,  or  his  skeptical  and  atheistical 
enemies?    let  common  sense  give  the  answer;  to  wit, 
that  all  the  fore-named  gentlemen  will  have  their  turn 
to  wear  the  foolscap  in  the  presence  of  the  spirits  of  just 
men  made  perfect  through  the  blood  of  Christ  and  also 
in  the  presence  of  God  and  holy  angels  ;  while  the  te- 
dious hour-glass  of  eternity  is  running  its  interminable 
sands  through  the  same  ;  when  the  glory  and  grandeur 
of  Christ,  who  had  for  a  few  moments  to  wear  a  fool's 
cap  in  the  cabin  of  the  ship  Harmony,  before  the  lady 
and  physician,  we  say  dear  old  shipmate,  the  curtain  of 
darkness  ^and  skeptical  vanity  shall  then  be  raised,  and 
his  mediatorial  kingdom  in  that  decisive  day,  and  his  re- 
fulgent glory  shall  cause  the  sun  in  our  heavens  to  look 
pale,  and  cause  all  the  before  named  nations  and  empires, 
to  retire  into  oblivion,  and  pass  away  like  a  summer 
cloud  evaporates  or  disappears  under  the  burning  rays 
of  a  solar  sun. 

Then  shall  all  those  nations  and  empires  whose  names 
we  have  so  often  called  over  on  the  deck  of  the  ship 
Perseverance,  with  all  other  nations  of  the  earth  whose 
names  and  characters  are  so  numerous,  that  we  cannot 
speak  of  them  in  detail,  shall  drop  their  poor  ephemer- 
al wings  and  retire  into  the  shades  of  eternal  forgetful- 


88 

ness,  as  being  unworthy  the  notice  of  intelligent  beings  : 
having  ended  our  few  remarks  on  the  lady's  text,  what 
think  ye  of  Christ?  about  the  20th  of  May,  the  ship 
made  the  capes  of  the  Delaware,  and  when  she  reached 
a  small  town  on  the  river  named  Chester,  the  lady  and 
suit  went  on  shore  after  a  tedious  passage  of  more  than 
eight  weeks  ;  and  she  gave  Onesimus  a  small  piece  of 
gold  and  he  saw  her  no  more,  although  he  was  invited 
by  some  of  her  servants  to  call  and  see  her;  but  he 
viewed  himself  too  low  bred  to  visit  such  great  folks, 
and  as  we  have  no  doubt  nearly  exhausted  "your  patience 
and  almost  deafened  your  ears  with  some  of  the  discor- 
dant sounds  of  our  sea-faring  words  and  figures,  we  will 
close  the  log-book  and  put  up  the  inkhorn  till  we  get  a 
breeze  off  the  land. 

Onesimus. 
To  Elder  Joseph  Maylin. 

Off  Chester j  on  the  river  Delaware,  May 
22nd,  1786. 


89 


LETTER   XII. 

Onesimus  engages  with  captain  Villet  to  go  again  a3  a  lad  before 
the  mast  in  the  ship  Harmony  to  London,  but  staying  out  of  the 
city  a  day  or  two  more  than  he  ought,  when  he  went  into  the  city 
the  captain  had  shipped  all  his  hands,  and  being  disappointed  tie 
finally  gave  up  the  idea  of  a  sea-faring  life,  and  his  father  and 
some  of  the  rest  of  the  family  became  excited  about  the  salvation 
of  their  souls,  which  finally  led  Onesimus  to  go  and  hear  the  gos- 
pel, and  to  quit  the  sea  altogether,  when  he  was  led  at  last  to  hear 
the  blowing  of  the  wind  of  the  spirit,  and  to  him  at  that  time  the 
awful  sound  thereof. 

Dear  Sir: 


Our  last  rough  scrawl  left  Onesimus  on  board  the  ship 
Harmony  off  Chester,  in  the  river  Delaware,  the  next 
day  she  got  to  the  city ;  when  he  went  home  to  his 
father's,  a  little  way  out  of  town,  to  stay  till  she  was 
ready  to  sail,  as  he  had  agreed  with  captain  Villet  to  go 
as  a  lad  before  the  mast  in  his  ship  to  London  ;  but  in 
consequence  of  his  oversight  in  staying  a  day  or  two 
over  the  time  when  he  was  to  return  on  board  of  the 
ship  ;  the  mate  informed  him  that  all  the  hands  were 
shipped,  and  being  disappointed  he  thought  he  would 
try  and  content  himself  on  shore,  until  the  ship  returned 
from  London  in  the  ensuing  fall  ;  and  it  came  to  pass 
that  after  being  on  shore  a  few  months,  that  he  became 
more  and  more  reconciled  to  live  on  land,  so  that  his 
predilection  for  a  sea-faring  life  finally  wore  off ;  and 
during  the  fall  of  1786,  and  the  winter  and  spring  of 
1787  the  lady's  text  would  at  times  pass  through  his 
mind,  what  think  you  of  Christ,  when  he  as  often  strove 
to  banish  so  serious  a  thought  from  his  reflections  ;  and 
in  those  days  the  true  fear  of  God,  was  not  to  his  know- 
ledge, experienced  in  the  neighbourhood  where  his 
father  lived ;  and  as  he  had  attended  no  place  of  public 
worship  since  the  year  1779,  he  generally  passed  the 
Lord's  day  in  walking  in  fine  weather  in  the  different 
fields  and  roads  through  the  surrounding  country,  most- 


90 

ly  by  himself — for  he  was  never  fond  like  many  others 
of  his  age  of  being  in  much  company,  nor  going  like  the 
young  folks  of  the  neighbourhood,  to  dances,  or  any 
other  public  amusements;  so  that  it  was  by  this  singular 
turn  of  mind,  that  he  was  preserved  in  those  days  from 
the  grosser  vices  of  many  young  persons  ;  but  notwith- 
standing this  trait  in  his  character,  the  true  fear  of  God 
was  not  before  his  eyes,  with  the  exception  of  the  lady's 
text,  which  would  once  in  a  while  dart  through  his 
mind  like  a  flash  of  lightning,  but  in  every  other  res- 
pect the  true  fear  of  God  was  not  as  the  scriptures  say, 
in  all  his  thoughts  either  by  day  or  night ;  after  this  to 
the  end  of  the  year  1787,  there  is  nothing  that  can  be 
distinctly  recollected  at  this  length  of  time,  that  is  wor- 
thy of  notice  in  the  log-book  of  the  ship  Perseverance : 
there  seemed  almost  a  dead  calm,  as  the  wind  of  God's 
spirit  did  not  blow  a  gale  at  that  time  on  his  guilty  soul. 
Somewhere  about  the  commencement  of  1788,  his 
father  and  part  of  his  family  were  elicited  by  the  popu- 
lar preaching  of  one  Joseph  Pilmore,  who  had  ante- 
cedently been  in  connection  with  the  Rev.  John  Wes- 
ley, and  if  our  memory  is  correct,  Mr.  Pilmore,  and  a 
Mr.  Boardman,  were  the  first  of  the  methodist  ministers 
who  introduced  Mr.  Wesley's  doctrine  and  discipline 
into  North  America,  at  the  city  of  New  York  ;  but  the 
war  of  1776  coming  on,  Mr.  Pilmore  returned  to  Eng- 
land, and  from  some  misunderstanding  between  these 
reverend  gentlemen,  Mr.  Pilmore  left  the  growing- 
interest  of  Mr.  Wesley  and  joined  himself  to  the  fellow- 
ship of  the  church  of  England ;  and  in  a  few  years  after 
the  peace  of  1783,  Mr.  Pilmore  came  over  to  America, 
as  an  episcopal  clergyman  of  the  church  of  England  ; 
and  on  his  coming  to  Philadelphia,  (he  was  either  by 
the  wardens  or  trustees  of  St.  Paul's  Church  of  that 
city,  invited  to  preach  on  Lord's  day  evenings,  of  which 
one  Parson  McGaw  was  the  Rector,)  Mr.  Pilmore  be- 
came so  popular,  that  the  church  or  meeting-house  was 
especially  on  Sunday  evenings,  filled  with  hearers  to  a 
state  of  overflowing,  and  among  his  admirers  was  his 
father  and  part  of  his  family ;  and  Onesimus  observing 
his  father  and  some  of  the  rest  of  his  family  speaking  in 


91 

terms  of  the  highest  praise  of  his  sermons,  when  he 
thought  to  himself,  since  there  is  so  much  said  about  this 
preacher,  he  would  go  and  hear  for  himself ;  so  accord- 
ingly on  the  following  Lord's  day  evening,  he  left  his 
father's  house  in  an  opposite  direction  from  the  city,  for 
he  was  ashamed  that  either  his  father  or  any  of  the  rest 
of  the  family,  or  any  of  the  people  of  the  place,  should 
entertain  the  most  distant  idea  of  his  going  to  a  place  of 
worship  ;  so  when  he  thought  himself  at  a  sufficient 
distance  so  as  not  to  be  observed,  he  turned  about 
and  went  into  the  city  by  a  different  road  from  that 
which  the  rest  of  the  family  went,  and  by  the  time  he 
reached  St.  Paul's  Church,  it  was  so  crowded  with 
people,  not  only  the  pews  but  all  the  aisles  of  the  church, 
were  sq  filled  with  hearers,  that  this  prodigal  sinner 
could  scarcely  find  room  to  stand  in  the  main  aisle  of 
the  church  ;  but  he  stood  during  the  whole  of  the  dis- 
course, and  as  parson  Pilmore  was  describing  the  love 
of  God  through  the  meritorious  grace  and  righteousness 
of  Jesus  Christ  towards  sinful  man,  and  the  high  dignity 
to  which  the  grace  and  power  of  the  gospel  would  finally 
raise  a  poor  sinner;  when  Onesimus,  like  the  two  dis- 
ciples on  their  way  to  Emmaus,  that  his  heart  burned 
within  him,  and  at  the  same  time  he  most  ardently  wish- 
ed he  could  be  a  true  christian,  as  he  thought  the  cha- 
racter, beauty  and  glory  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  were 
set  forth  by  Parson  Pilmore  that  evening,  so  that  it 
brought  the  tears  from  this  prodigal's  eyes,  when  he 
formed  a  strong  resolution  in  his  own  moral  strength, 
that  he  would  hereafter  strive  to  be  a  christian,  and  as 
he  was  returning  home  to  his  father's  house  between  2 
and  3  miles,  the  wind  of  the  spirit  in  a  most  powerful 
manner  brought  the  lady  and  physician's  views  of  Christ 
into  his  mind,  on  board  the  ship  Harmony  in  the  month 
of  April,  1786,  when  they  were  seated  round  the  fes- 
tive board ;  whom  they  exhibited  as  standing  on  the  stage 
of  a  mountebank,  labelled  before  Jews  and  deists,  as  an 
artful  impostor ;  which  caused  Onesimus  to  seriously 
revolve  in  his  mind  the  different  shades  of  colour  which 
Mr.  Pilmore,  and  the  physician  and  lady,  the  former 
with  the  pencil  of  truth,  and  the  latter  with  the  pen  of 


92 

falsehood — gave  of  Christ  as  they  drew  the  portrait  of 
his  person  and  character  ;  so  when  he  went  home  he 
kneeled  in  a  large  loft  where  he  slept,  and  said  over  to 
himself  the  Lord's  prayer,  which  he  had  not  done  since 
1779,  when  he  experienced  for  a  few  weeks  a  serious 
mood  under  Elder  Sprout,  from  the  24th  Psalm,  as  we 
have  once  noticed  in  our  log-book,  which  he  had  forgot 
altogether,  and  we  indulge  ourselves  to  say,  what  count- 
less millions  do  the  same,  and  know  not  that  the  true 
spirit  of  prayer  is  from  a  broken  and  contrite  heart, 
than  the  lady's  poultry  in  the  coops  on  the  deck  of  the 
ship  Harmony,  in  1786.  And  it  came  to  pass  that 
during  the  week  that  he  longed  for  the  ensuing  Lord's 
day  evening,  that  he  might  have  the  privilege  to  hear 
that  angel  of  God  once  more  ;  so  when  the  next  Lord's 
day  arrived,  he  setoff  in  the  evening  of  the  same,  taking 
at  the  same  time,  all  the  care  he  possibly  could,  so  as 
not  to  be  discovered  going  to  a  place  of  worship,  for  he 
had  now  formed  a  scheme  in  his  mind,  that  he  would 
serve  God ;  and  at  the  same  time  he  kept  it  an  entire 
secret  to  himself,  and  he  went  again  on  the  second 
Lord's  day  evening,  and  stood  as  on  the  former  occasion 
in  the  aisle  of  the  Church,  and  heard  the  Rev.  gentle- 
man with  increasing  attention,  and  after  he  had  attend- 
ed several  sabbath  evenings,  he  became  more  conscien- 
tious than  ever  in  his  repeating  before  he  went  to  rest 
on  his  knees,  the  Lord's  prayer  ;  so  that  under  the  min- 
istration of  the  gospel  in  St.  Paul's  Church  for  a  few 
weeks,  his  mind  and  judgment  became  so  far  enlighten- 
ed, that  he  was  convinced,  that  the  use  of  vulgar  and 
profane  language  must  be  entirely  laid  aside,  or  else  a 
poor  lost  sinner  has  no  claim  to  the  name  of  a  christian  ; 
notwithstanding  his  assiduous  attention  to  all  the  cere- 
monies and  outward  ordinances  of  the  church  of  Christ 
on  earth  :  and  Onesimus  seeing  and  hearing  the  name  of 
God  daily  and  hourly  by  young  and  old  taken  in  vain, 
in  a  city  professing  to  be  the  disciples  and  followers  of 
him,  who  enjoined  on  all  that  took  his  name  upon  them, 
to  let  your  communication  be  yea,  yea ;  nay  nay :  for 
whatsoever  is  more  than  these,  cometh  of  evil :  and  he 
not  fully  understanding  that  it  was  one  thing  to  take  the 


93 

name  of  Christ  upon  us,  and  another  thing  to  have  him 
by  his  holy  spirit  live  and  rule  in  our  hearts  by  faith, 
therefore  he  thought  it  very  strange  that  such  open  sin- 
ners should  call  themselves  christians  ;  so  that  at  inter- 
vals through  the  week,  his  old  enemy  the  Devil,  most 
powerfully  pressed  on  his  mind,  the  discourses  and 
views  of  the  lady  and  the  doctor,  in  the  cabin  of  the 
ship  Harmony,  tliat  perhaps  their  doctrines  and  views 
were  true,  seeing  that  such  vast  numbers  who  call  them- 
selves christians,  live  and  act  as  if  they  no  more  believed 
in  the  holiness  of  God,  and  the  divine  sanction  of  his 
laws,  and  their  personal  immortality  after  death,  as  the 
lady  said,  and  the  physician  confirmed  the  same  to  be 
his  views — than  the  poultry  that  was  shut  up  in  the 
hencoops  on  deck :  and  for  many  weeks  after  this  did 
Satan  that  roaring  lion,  pester  his  mind  with  these  fool- 
ish and  atheistical  views  about  the  existence  of  the  soul 
in  another  world ;  but  by  this  time  the  holy  spirit,  as 
the  only  efficient  agent  in  the  great  work  of  a  sinner's 
salvation,  had  at  last  taken  this  wondering  prodigal  in 
hand,  when  by  the  agency  of  him  who  is  only  able  to 
quicken  a  dead  sinner,  were  brought  to  his  mind  the 
most  awful  presentations  of  the  damning  nature  of  sin, 
which  were  daily  more  or  less  by  the  wind  of  the  holy 
spirit  in  a  most  alarming  manner,  brought  with  power 
to  his  guilty  soul,  for  him  to  flee  the  wrath  to  come,  so 
that  the  unbelieving  and  atheistical  temptations  of  Satan, 
only  coerced  him  more  and  more  to  go  and  hear  the 
gospel  ;  as  through  that,  as  the  only  medium  through 
which,  an  efficient  physician  and  salutary  balm  can  heal 
a  law  condemned  sinner's  soul  :  after  this  he  read  and 
closely  examined  the  ten  commandments,  and  some  of 
the  other  precepts  of  the  law  of  Moses,  and  discovered 
that  the  law  not  only  commands,  but  goes  so  far  as  to 
pronounce,  cursed  is  every  one  that  continueth  not  in 
all  things,  which  are  written  in  the  book  of  the  lawT  to 
do  them  ;  so  that  this  scripture,  with  the  preaching  of 
the  holy  prelate  as  he  viewed  him  at  that  time  to  be, 
so  powerfully  wrought  upon  his  mind,  that  he  went  the 
most  assiduously  to  work  in  his  own  way  to  the  king- 
dom of  heaven,  by  endeavouring  to  live  and  be  as  holy 


94 

as  he  possibly  could  ;  thus  he  went  on  for  some  months, 
by  taking  the  most  secluded  roads,  lanes  and  over  fields, 
to  keep  himself  from  being  taken  notice  of  by  the  young 
people  of  the  village,  through  which  he  must  pass  if  he 
went  in  a  straight  direction  to  the  city  to  hear  the  gos- 
pel.    Thus  Onesimus  went  on  in  this  covert  way  as  he 
then  vainly  supposed,  to  obtain  the  mercy  and  favour 
of  God  by  works  of  his  own  legal  righteousness,  and  at 
times  rather  pleasing  himself,  that  he  had  found  that 
path,  which  no  fowl  knoweth,  and  the  vulture's  eye 
hath  not  seen,  the  lion's  whelps  have  not  trodden  it,  nor 
the  fierce  lion  passed  it  by  ;  Job,  xxviii.  7-8.    Thus  he 
went  on  with  his  legal  righteousness,  (and  we  are  fully 
justified  in  saying,  cowardly  hypocrisy,)  till  about  the 
breaking  up  of  the  ice  in  the  river  Delaware,  about  the 
last  of  February,   1789;    it  seems  that  he   had  made 
choice  of  this  icy  railroad,  to  shun  the  taking  up   of 
the  cross  before  men,  and  pleased  himself,  as  we  have 
once  observed,  that  he  so  slyly  outwitted  the  Devil,  and 
all  his  enemies,  who  wished  to  retard  his  way  to  the 
world  of  immortality ;  and  it  came  to  pass,  that  on  one 
sabbath   evening  a   little  after  sunset,  and  it  growing 
rather  dark,  and  Onesimus  not  being  in  the  least  appre- 
hensive  of  danger,   when  suddenly  he   found   himself 
sinking  above  his  knees  in  the  water  of  the  river  Dela- 
ware, about  a  mile  from  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  at  one 
of  the  cracks,  or  splits  in  the  ice  ;  but  he  being  young 
at  that  time,  he  made  a  sudden  spring  as  the  ice  was 
going  down  under  him,  and  leaped  on  the  fast  part  of 
the  ice,  by  which  agility  of  his  youthful  nature,  under 
the  mercy  and  long  suffering  of  God  towards  him,  this 
returning  prodigal  was  in  a  moment  of  time  saved  from 
a  watery  grave  ;  and  when  he  found  he  was  safe  on  the 
fast  ice,  he  stood  and  paused  a  short  time,  when  the 
wind  of  the  spirit,  which  bloweth  where   it  listeth, 
brought  this  passage  of  scripture  in  a  most  powerful 
manner  to   his  mind  :    Whosoever  therefore,  shall  be 
ashamed  of  me,  and  of  my  words,  in  this  adulterous  and 
sinful  generation,  of  him  also  shall  the  son  of  man  be 
ashamed,  when  he  cometh  in  the  glory  of  his  father, 
with  the  holy  angels,  Mark,  viii.  38, 


95 

These  words  were  by  the  agency  of  the  holy  spirit, 
brought  immediately  to  his  mind,  as  he  did  not  know 
at  that  time,  there  were  such  words  in  the  gospel,  as 
he  was  very  superficially  acquainted  with  the  scriptures 
in  those  days,  when  he  thus  reasoned  with  himself;  your 
own  conscience  well  knows,  that  shame  and  the  fear  of 
men,  which  often  bringeth  a  snare  to  the  soul,  because 
you  were  afraid  to  outwardly  confess  the  name  and 
cause  of  Christ  before  the  young  people  of  your  neigh- 
bourhood ;  that  caused  you  to  take  this  dangerous  way 
on  the  ice  to  hear  the  gospel,  and  if  you  had  sunk  under 
the  ice,  you  should  have  been  most  certainly  drowned, 
and  your  soul  sent  to  hell  and  have  been  damned  for- 
ever :  and  before  he  left  the  ice,  he  instantly  resolved 
that  in  the  fear  and  strength  of  the  Lord  he  would  take 
up  the  cross,  and  go  on  the  main  road  to  the  city  to  hear 
God's  word  the  next  sabbath. 


96 


No.  1.  Onesimus  leaving  his  father's  house,  in  -order  to  elude  the 
young  people,  and  make  them  believe  he  was  only  going  to 
see  and  mix  with  the  folks  skating  on  the  ice. 

No.  2.  He  is  sinking  in  the  river  in  consequence  of  the  ice  being 
broken,  when  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  brings  this  scripture  with 
great  force  to  his  mind ;  Whosoever  therefore,  shall  be  asham- 
ed of  me,  and  my  words,  in  this  adulterous  and  sinful  genera- 
tion ;  of  him  also  shall  the  son  of  man  be  ashamed,  when  he 
cometh  in  the  glory  of  his  father,  with  the  holy  angels,  Mark, 
viii.  38. 

No.  3.  Onesimus  when  he  saw  he  was  saved,  calls  on  the  name  of 
the  Lord. 

No.  4.  The  people  skating  on  the  ice  of  the  Delaware. 


The  next  first  day  having  arrived,  Onesimus  took 
up  the  cross,  and  set  off  with  the  rest  of  the  family  to 
the  city  to  worship  ;  when  the  young  people  and  neigh- 
bours of  the  village,  through  which  he  had  to  pass, 
stood  at  the  doors  of  their  houses  making  their  remarks, 
that  he  was  going  to  be  very  godly,  indeed ;  as  it  was 
rather  a  singular  thing  in  those  days,  for  young  men  to 
go  into  the.  city  to  worship  God.  And  it  came  to  pass, 
that  from  this  time  forth,  that  he  continued  to  attend 
on  divine  worship  at  St.  Paul's  church,  in  south  Third 
St.  Philadelphia,  from  two  to  three  times  on  each  suc- 
ceeding Lord's  day. 


97 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Mc  Craw  mostly  performed  the  ser- 
vice of  the  altar,  in  the  ministrations  of  the  forenoon  and 
afternoon  services,  which  it  appears  the  doctor  claimed 
as  a  matter  of  right,  he  being  the  rector  of  the  church  ; 
and  the  Rev.  Joseph  Pilmore  performing  the  service  on 
Lord's  day  evenings,  generally  to  an  overflowing  au- 
dience, while  the  congregation  who  attended  the  minis- 
tration of  doctor  Mc  Gaw,  were  mostly  small ;  and  as 
the  doctor  having  all  his  sermons  written,  and  then 
reading  them  off  to  these  poor  sheep  of  Christ,  more  in 
the  manner  of  the  ancient  Greek  and  Roman  orators, 
delivering  their  ethics  on  the  morality  of  their  supposed 
deities,  and  other  abstract  subjects  of  either  natural  or 
moral  philosophy,  than  that  of  the  glad  tidings  of  sal- 
vation to  a  perishing  and  lost  world,  the  consequence 
of  the  doctor's  being  so  richly  imbued  with  classical  re- 
finements from  various  ecclesiastical  authors;  and  his 
polemical  discrepancies  on  points  of  high  church  su- 
premacy, and  apostolical  ordination  ;  but  we  just  observe 
that  the  true  nature  of  the  case  is  that  the  official  docu- 
ments of  apostolical  supremacy  in  the  true  line  of  either 
Peter  or  Paul's  authority,  has  the  dolorous  misfortune, 
to  lay  concealed  under  the  garments  of  the  scarlet  lady, 
for  about  twelve  hundred  years  ;  so  it  is  not  very  un- 
likely, but  this  lady  might  during  the  warm  months 
which  took  place  in  twelve  years  we  say,  might  chance 
often  to  perspire,  and  in  that  case  the  humid  gas  that  had 
has|so  long  a  location  under  the  lady's  scarlet  robes,  might 
in  some  degree  have  caused  the  apostolical  hand  writing 
of  both  Peter  and  Paul,  to  become  so  very  pale,  that  it 
would  require  the  vision  of  the  vulture's  eye  to  clearly 
read  the  apostolical  documents,  about  this  wonderful 
and  at  the  same  time  unbroken  chain  of  apostolic  and 
episcopal  ordination  ;  or  this  golden  chain  of  episcopal  su- 
premacy by  being  located  in  the  damp  air  for  twelve  hun- 
dred years,  might  perhaps  have  caused  this  golden 
chain  to  rust ;  so  that  we  believe  it  will  be  very  apt  to 
part  asunder:  if  there  should  arise  by  the  power  of  the 
holy  spirit  of  God,  a  heavy  storm  over  the  gospel  sea, 
by  that  wind  which  bloweth  where  it  listeth  ;  and  the 

K 


98 

old  hulks  of  national  churches  might  perhaps  be  driven 
off  from  their  moorings. 

Our  old  shipmate  will  be  so  kind  as  to  pass  by  this 
long  digression,  while  we  were  listening  to  the  rector's 
style  and  manner  of  preaching ;  therefore  doctor  Mc 
Gaw's  reading  did  not  make  so  powerful  an  impression 
on  the  mind  of  Onesimus :  which  the  discourses  of 
Mr.  Pilmore  did,  they  of  course  wanted  the  stamina 
and  evangelical  unction  of  the  fire  of  the  Holy  Ghost ; 
which  every  true  preacher  of  the  Gospel,  that  is  truly 
sent  of  God  ought  to  possess :  about  this  time  his  father 
and  part  of  his  family,  began  to  attend  on  the  preaching 
of  the  Methodist  ministers  in  St.  George's  Church,  in 
Fourth  St.,  Philadelphia,  in  the  summer  of  1789  ;  from 
this  time,  Onesimus  went  in  the  forenoon  and  afternoon 
of  the  Lord's  day,  to  hear  the  Methodist  ministers,  and 
in  the  evening  of  the  same  to  attend  on  Mr.  Pilmore's 
discourses ;  but  he  soon  became  more  arrested  by  the 
zeal,  spirit,  and  evangelical  animation  of  the  methodist 
clergy,  which  was  better  suited  to  the  unlettered  and 
ignorant  mind,  and  dull  apprehension  of  this  guilty  sin- 
ner, than  the  tedious  liturgy  of  the  Church  of  England. 
As  the  Methodist  ministers  in  those  days  seemed  to  aim 
more  at  the  heart  than  at  the  head  of  a  poor  sinner, 
their  ideas,  and  manner  of  preaching,  were  more  easily 
comprehended  by  the  uncultivated  mind  of  a  young 
sailor ;  they  did  not  use  much  of  their  time  to  round  off 
and  finally  finish  their  periods,  and  polish  off  their  sen- 
tences, as  many  do  in  these  days,  who  undertake  to 
preach  the  gospel  with  excellency  of  speech,  and  en- 
ticing words  of  man's  wisdom  ;  so  that  under  the 
preaching  of  the  Methodists,  he  became  more  and  more 
alarmed  with  the  fears  of  hell  and  eternal  damnation ; 
therefore  their  preaching  was  more  in  accordance  with 
the  awful  condition  sin  had  involved  his  soul  in. 

In  the  autumn  of  1790,  Onesimus  quit  attending  the 
evening  discourses  of  parson  Pilmore,  and  attended  ex- 
clusively on  the  ministration  of  the  gospel  under  the 
methodist  ministry,  when  he  was  led  more  extensively 
to  see  his  sinful  and  ruined  state  by  nature,  and  the  im- 
perious necessity  of  complying  with  our  Lord's  injunc- 


99 

1 

tion  to  Nicodemus,  and  through  him  to  every  uncon- 
verted sinner  :  Marvel  not,  -that  I  said  unto  thee,  ye 
must  be  born  again  ;  John,  iii.  7. 

Thus  he  attended  through  the  winter  of  1790,  and 
1791,  on  the  Methodist  preaching  for  the  reasons  al- 
ready assigned,  so  that  oftentimes  under  their  preaching, 
the  awful  terrors  of  hell  and  eternal  damnation,  were 
brought  home  to  his  alarmed  conscience,  till  at  last  the 
fear  of  finally  falling  under  the  wrath  of  God,  pursued 
him  night  and  day  ;  he  began  now  to  view  the  metho- 
dist  people,  but  more  especially  their  clergy,  as  the  most 
righteous  and  holy  people  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  and 
at  the  same  time  himself  the  most  unrighteous  and  un- 
holy wretch  out  of  hell  ;  so  that  he  was  afraid  to  speak 
to  any  of  them,  in  order , to  open  his  mind  about  the 
awful  state  of  his  soul.  But  still  he  continued  to  attend 
all  their  prayer  and  preaching  meetings,  where  he  heard 
of  many  that  obtained  the  evidence  of  their  being  con- 
verted, or  in  the  language  of  our  Lord,  born  again; 
some  in  a  few  weeks  and  others  in  a  few  days,  and  in  a 
few  solitary  cases  in  a  few  hours  ;  so  that  their  passage 
over  the  gospel  sea  into  the  haven  of  peace  with  God, 
or  a  knowledge  of  the  pardon  of  their  sins ;  so  that 
numbers  were  brought  in  a  short  time  from  their  being 
open  and  profane  sinners,  to  that  of  praying,  and  shout- 
ing persons,  in  the  different  meetings,  in  a  public 
manner.  But  this  ignorant  and  law  condemned  sinner, 
was  as  unable  to  open  his  mouth  and  pray  in  public,  as 
he  would  have  been  to  create  a  world  ;  and  as  for  his 
undertaking  to  arrange  his  ideas  together,  either  in 
writing,  or  the  sound  of  words,  and  place  them  before 
God,  with  a  dark  mind  and  unsanctified  conscience,  and 
an  hard  heart,  was  as  the  prophet  saith — if  ye  offer  the 
blind  for  sacrifice,  is  it  not  evil  ?  and  if  ye  offer  the 
lame  and  sick,  is  it  not  evil  ?  saith  the  Lord :  so  that 
he  oftentimes  wondered  how  it  was  that  these  people 
learnt  to  pray  in  so  short  a  time  in  public.  The  young 
people  of  the  methodist  society  observing  him  at  their 
prayer  meetings  so  frequently,  and  seeing  him  oftentimes 
in  great  distress  of  mind,  called  on  him  to  go  to  God  in 
prayer,  and  never  rise  from  his  knees,  and  they  were 


100 

sure  the  Lord  would  set  his  soul  at  liberty ;  but  his 
heart  was  so  hard,  and  his  mind  and  soul  so  dark,  that 
as  we  have  before  said,  he  could  no  more  open  his 
mouth  in  prayer,  than  he  could  create  himself  wings 
and  fly  to  heaven;  some  may  talk  about  moral  power  to 
serve  God  and  save  their  souls,  and  get  to  heaven,  but 
this  wretched  law  condemned  sinner  had  no  good  thing 
in  him,  but  as  the  prophet  says — "  his  whole  head  is 
sick,  and  his  whole  heart  faint:"  when  he  became  at 
times  so  low  spirited  when  he  heard  and  saw  so  many 
young  people  praying  and  rejoicing  in  the  Lord,  and 
he  dared  not  raise  his  eyes  nor  voice  to  God  for  mercy: 
when  he  thought  he  would  still  make  another  start  for 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  when  he  began  to  fast  every 
Lord's  day,  and  to  pray  in  secret  every  night  and 
morning  as  well  as  he  knew  how,  in  order  that  perhaps 
at  last  God  would  have  mercy  on  him  ;  thus  he  went  on 
a  new  railway  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  In  the  spring 
of  1791,  a  market  boat  was  upset  returning  from  the 
city  up  the  Delaware,  a  little  above  his  father's  house, 
and  three  of  the  women  were  drowned,  and  brought  on 
shore  and  laid  in  a  room  in  his  father's  house ;  this  sud- 
den death  of  these  women  most  powerfully  alarmed 
him,  and  the  spirit  said  to  him  as  the  prophet  did  to 
ancient  Israel,  prepare  to  meet  thy  God.  Shortly  after 
this,  he  had  a  young  brother  about  seven  years  of  age 
drowned  in  the  Delaware,  which  further  alarmed  him 
of  dying  in  an  unconverted  state,  and  being  sent  to  hell 
forever  ;  so  that  almost  every  death  that  occurred  in  the 
neighbourhood,  went  more  or  less  to  awaken  his  legal 
fears ;  during  this  spring  a  very  heavy  southeast  storm 
came  down  on  the  Delaware  in  the  night,  and  washed 
up  the  bones  of  a  British  sailor,  that  had  died  on  board 
a  British  ship  of  war,  that  lay  at  anchor  in  the  Delaware 
off  his  father's  house,  who  they  brought  on  shore  and 
buried  about  a  foot  and  a  half  under  the  earth  on  the 
bank  of  the  river,  nearly  opposite  his  father's  house, 
while  the  British  army  were  in  the  city  of  Philadel- 
phia in  1778  ;  the  next  morning  after  the  storm  had 
ceased,  as  Onesimus  was  walking  on  the  shore  of  the 
river,  and  viewing  the  deleterious  effects  of  the  late 


101 

storm,  when  he  saw  the  wreck  of  a  coflin  partly  washed 
out  of  the  sand  of  the  river,  by  the  waves  which  the 
storm  had  raised,  and  the  broken  pieces  of  the  coffin 
with  the  bones  of  the  sailor,  more  or  less  strewed  along 
the  shore  of  the  river  ;  which  caused  this  young  sinner 
to  pause,  and  seriously  reflect  on  his  last  end,  when  the 
spirit  of  the  Lord  which  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and 
thou  nearest  the  sound  thereof,  so  is  everyone  that  is  born 
of  the  spirit;  and  in  the  language  of  the  apostle  John? 
but  as  many  as  received  him,  to  them  gave  he  power  to 
become  the  sons  of  God,  even  to  them  that  believe  on 
his  name,  which  were  born  not  of  the  blood  of  Abraham, 
or  any  royal  descent,  nor  of  the  will  of  man  ;  that  is,  any 
ancient  or  modern  schemes,  which  the  modern  wisdom 
of  fallen  man  may  devise  as  a  substitute  for  the  atoning 
blood  of  Christ ;  nor  of  the  will  of  the  flesh,  that  is,  all 
earthly  wisdom  of  this  sinful  world,  not  possessing  either 
physical  or  moral  power  to  give  divine  life  to  a  sinner, 
dead  in  trespasses  and  sins  :  and  as  Onesimus  was  deeply 
excogitating  in  his  mind  over  the  bones  of  this  poor 
British  sailor,  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  most  powerfully 
presented  to  his  view  all  the  passing  glory  of  this  world, 
such  as  empires,  kingdoms  with  their  princes,  and  other 
great  personages  of  the  earth,  which  as  smaller  satellites 
in  their  ephemeral  governments,  are  daily  revolving 
round  these  orbs  of  earthly  vanity  ;  and  as  he  stood  on 
the  shore  viewing  with  intensity  of  thought  the  bones  of 
the  sailor:  when  he  exclaimed  to  his  soul,  in  language 
almost  similar  to  that  used  by  the  royal  saint,  Lord 
what  is  man  that  thou  art  mindful  of  him  ;  when  he  groan- 
ed within  himself  and  reflected — must  he  at  last  come  to 
this  state  of  humiliation!  when  he  most  sincerely  wish- 
ed he  could  ascertain  if  there  was  any  truth  in  his  own 
immortality,  and  the  supreme  divinity  of  the  son  of 
God,  so  that  he  could  with  the  full  confidence  of  David, 
say  return  unto  thy  rest,  0  !  my  soul,  for  the  Lord 
hath  dealt  bountifully  with  thee.  Our  dear  old  ship- 
mate sees  we  presume  by  this  time  that  when  the  Lord's 
time  is  come  to  evangelize  the  world,  he  can  make  the 
most  powerful  gospel  orators  if  he  pleases  out  of  dead 
men's  bones.     This  sermon  which  this  British  sailor's. 


102 

bones  preached,  followed  by  the  declarations  of  the  sweet 
singer  of  Israel,  rested  on  this  law  condemned  sinner's 
mind  from  day  to  day  for  some  weeks,  and  was  made  by 
the  spirit  which  bloweth  where  it  listeth  the  most  evan- 
gelical discourse  he  ever  heard  ;  and  after  he  had  stood 
a  while  on  the  shore,  with  these  serious  reflections 
rushing  through  his  mind  he  paused,  and  then  went  to 
work  and  obtained  some  tools  and  boards,  and  made  a 
rough  coffin,  and  collected  together  his  bones  and 
placed  them  in  his  new  coffin,  nailing  them  up,  and  went 
and  digged  a  grave  a  sufficient  distance  from  the  Dela- 
ware river;  where  they  lay  in  peace  to  this  day  (1839). 


103 


No.  1.  A  British  ship   of  war  lying  at  anchor  in  the  Delaware  off 

Kensington,  about  a  mile  above  the  cily  of  Philadelphia,  in  the 

year  1778,  on  board  of  which  the  sailor  died,  and  was  taken 

on  shore,  and  buried  on  the  bank  of  the  river. 
No.  2.  Onesimus  in  the  act  of  gathering  up  the  poor  sailor's  bones, 

in  order  to  put  them  in  a  coffin. 
No.  3.  He  is  in  the  act  of  making  a  coffin  to  receive  the  bones, 

in  order  to  their  safe-keeping,  till  Gabriel  shall  say  to  them  in 

the  bright  morning  of  the  resurrection,  as  Martha  did  to  Mary  ; 

"  The  master  is  come  in  the  glory  of  his  power,  and  calleth  for 

thee.,' 
No.  4.  Onesimus  in  the  act  of  digging  a  grave,  for  to  bury  the 

sailor's  bones. 
No.  5.   His  father's  family  viewing  him  gathering  up  the  dead  man's 

bones,  and  wondering  what  he  intends  to  do  with  them. 


And  as  our  watch  is  called  on  board  the  ship  Perse- 
verance, we  will  turn  into  our  births  till  the  morning 
watch,  and  if  the  Lord  of  the  gospel  seas  will  grant  us 
a  gentle  breeze,  and  a  clear  sun,  wc  will  write  to  you 
again  on  this  solitary  and  dolorous  subject. 

Onesimus. 
To  Elder  Joseph  Mavlix. 

1790. 


104 


LETTER   XIII. 


Dear  Sir : 

After  Onesimus  had  safely  interred  the  English  sea- 
man's bones,  he  strove  to  become  more  serious  and  out- 
wardly holy  than  ever,  and  in  order  to  attain  such  a 
degree  of  perfection  as  would  finally  place  him  on  such 
advantageous  terms  in  the  sight  of  heaven,  according  to 
what  he  heard  in  the  pulpit  every  Lord's  day,  so  that 
if  he  could  only  make  himself  as  perfect  and  holy  as  he 
heard  described,  the  Lord  was  bound  both  by  his  pro- 
mise and  oath,  to  bless  him  with  the  evidence  and 
knowledge  of  the  pardon  of  his  sins.  When  he  set  out 
more  faithfully  than  ever  to  attend  all  the  prayer  and 
preaching  meetings  through  the  week,  as  well  as  on  the 
Lord's  day :  he  now  began  as  he  thought  to  pray  more 
fervently  than  ever,  and  spent  much  of  his  time  in 
secret,  in  reading  and  searching  the  scriptures,  often- 
times on  his  knees  at  the  throne  of  grace;  thus  he  went 
on  for  some  weeks  during  the  summer  of  1791  :  and  it 
came  to  pass,  that  after  this  legal  effort  to  obtain  the 
favour  of  the  almighty,  the  adversary  came  to  him,  and 
whispered  in  his  self-righteous  ear,  that  he  certainly 
was  a  good  christian  :  and  as  he  went  to  the  city  on  the 
sabbath  day  to  worship,  when  passing  by  his  neighbours 
and  other  careless  sinners,  as  he  then  thought  them  to 
be  in  the  broad  road  to  hell,  he  would  say  to  himself; 
how  much  better  and  holier  am  I,  than  these  wicked 
people,  who  swear  and  break  the  sabbath  :  till  at  last  he 
became  so  lifted  up  with  spiritual  and  pharisaical  pride, 
that  he  vainly  thought  himself  one  of  the  most  holy  and 
sanctified  persons  on  the  earth;  and  it  came  to  pass,  that 
after  he  had  been  walking  for  some  weeks  on  those 
vain  stilts  of  carnal  pride,  trying  by  every  possible 
means,  both  of  his  physical  and  mental  powers,  to  make 
himself  as  perfect  and  holy  in  the  sight  of  God  as  possi- 
ble; when  he  thought  he  had  almost  ascended  the  mount 
of  christian  holiness,  but  still  being  prone  to  self-con- 


105 

ceit  in  matters  relating  to  his  secular  business,  so  that 
being  opposed  by  his  father  in  the  execution  of  some 
piece  of  work,  his  father  wishing  it  finished  in  his  own 
way,  and  he  insisted  that  his  plan  was  the  most  advan- 
tageous manner  of  executing  the  same  ;  when  he  ex- 
perienced the  passion  of  anger  to  rise  in  his  unsanctified 
heart,  because  his  father  would  not  yield  to  his  plan  of 
executing  the  business,  when  he  was  brought  to  the 
dolorous  experience,  that  all  his  self  and  pharisaical 
righteousness,  had  not  changed  his  failing — his  unsancti- 
fied heart;  so  that  he  was  brought  by  this  small  breeze 
of  the  wind  of  the  spirit  from  off  Sinai's  lowering  bluff, 
to  see  and  feel  himself  a  poor  lost  and  miserable  sinner ; 
and  that  his  legal  righteousness  in  the  sight  of  God,  in 
the  language  of  one  of  his  prophets — were  as  filthy 
rags  :  after  this  little  squall  from  Sinai  had  blown  over, 
when  with  Adam — he  found  that  all  his  figleaf  covering 
of  self-righteousness  could  not  hide  his  sinful  and  unbe- 
lieving heart  in  the  sight  of  heaven,  and  he  now  ex- 
perienced the  power  of  unbelief  in  a  far  greater  degree 
than  he  had  ever  done  before  ;  so  that  all  his  past  phari- 
saical hypocrisy  spread  its  wings  and  left  him  almost 
wallowing  in  the  slough  of  despair,  so  that  he  often 
thought  the  heavens  were  brass,  and  quite  impervious 
to  all  his  prayers,  and  that  God  had  no  mercy  in  reversion 
for  him  ;  but  still  his  experience  and  the  awful  condi- 
tion of  his  soul  was  such,  that  he  would  not  turn  back  to 
either  the  love  of  the  world,  or  open  sin  of  any  kind  ; 
and  as  he  still  retained  his  intense  desire  after  his  soul's 
immortality,  so  that  he  still  continued  to  fast  and  pray, 
but  not  now  as  a  vain  and  proud  pharisee,  but  as  a 
guilty  and  wretched  sinner;  and  as  he  read  his  Bible,  his 
soul  was  led  to  ponder  on  a  passage  of  scripture,  in  the 
second  book  of  Kings,  viii.  4 ;  And  there  were  four 
leprous  men  at  the  entering  in  of  the  gate,  and  they 
said  one  to  another,  why  sit  we  here  until  we  die  ?  If 
we  say  we  will  enter  into  the  city,  then  the  famine  is 
in  the  city,  and  we  shall  die  there,  and  if  we  sit  still 
here,  we  die  also :  Now  therefore  come,  and  let  us  fall 
into  the  host  of  the  Syrians  ;  if  they  save  us  alive,  we 
shall  live,  and  if  they  kill  us,  we  shall  but  die.     And  it 


106 

came  to  pass,  that  after  reading  the  case  and  almost 
hopeless  condition  of  these  poor  leprous  persons,  and  in 
their  desperate  case,  forming  so  magnanimous  a  resolu- 
tion to  go  and  cast  themselves  on  the  mercy  of  an  hostile 
enemy  5  for  it  was  very  evident  that  they  could  not  on 
any  reasonable  principles,  have  entertained  the  least 
distant  hope,  that  the  Syrians  would  have  ever  suffered 
four  leprous  men,  to  come  into  the  camp  of  a  large  army 
of  healthy  soldiers  ;  so  that  these  four  leprous  men  in 
their  last  resolve,  were  a  living  commentary  of  the  apos- 
tle Paul's  illustration  of  the  faith  of  Abraham  ;  in  the 
full  confidence  he  placed  in  the  promise  of  his  God,  so 
very  contrary  to  all  the  long  established  laws  of  our 
nature,  in  the  entire  physical  imbecility  of  Abraham 
and  Sarah,  ever  being  the  parents  of  an  legitimate  off- 
spring, when  Paul  exclaims ;  Who  against  hope  believ- 
ed in  hope,  that  he  might  become  the  father  of  many 
nations.  When  Onesimus  saw  that  the  dernier  resolve 
of  the  leprous  men  was  worthy  to  be  pursued  in  his  own 
case :  when  he  said  to  himself,  why  sit  I  here  until  I 
die  ?  If  I  turn  back  to  the  world  and  sin,  then  the 
famine  of  eternal  life  is  in  the  world  ;  as  John  declares, 
that  all  that  is  in  the  world,  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  and 
the  lust  of  the  eyes,  and  the  pride  of  life  :  so  that  he 
almost  despaired  of  ever  obtaining  the  mercy  of  God, 
when  in  the  language  of  the  four  leprous  men,  he  said 
to  himself — if  I  enter  into  the  city,  there  is  nothing  but 
death  and  eternal  damnation  raging  in  this  sinful  world, 
and  I  shall  die  there.  And  if  I  remain  here,  I  shall  die 
also  :  when  he  arose  with  the  sentiments  and  magnani- 
mous resolution  of  the  four  leprous  men,  at  the  gate  of 
Samaria:  when  he  said  to  himself  the  second  time,  O  ! 
my  soul,  let  it  fall  into  the  attributes  of  the  mercy,  truth 
and  justice  of  God  :  and  if  he  reject  me,  I  shall  but  be 
damned  and  lost  forever.  But  if  the  almighty  perhaps 
shall  finally  shew  mercy  towards  me,  I  shall  live  :  so  he 
rose  in  the  twilight,  or  while  his  mind  walked  in  dark- 
ness, and  had  no  light ;  when  the  voice  of  God  through 
the  pen  of  his  prophet  Isaiah,  saith  unto  him  :  let  him 
trust  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  and  stay  upon  his  God  ; 
Isaiah,  1.  10.     This  scripture  came  by  the  wind  of  the 


107 

spirit  with  much  power  to  his  mind,  and  he  set  out  with 
a  renewed  determination  to  cast  himself  unreservedly 
on  the  compassion  of  heaven.  Shortly  after  this  his 
father  observing  that  he  was  under  great  exercise  of 
mind,  invited  some  of  the  Methodist  clergy  to  his  honse, 
in  order  to  have  some  religious  conversation  with  him  ; 
but  when  he  saw  them  coming  in  at  the  gate  before  his 
father's  house,  he  went  off  where  he  was  not  to  be  found, 
as  he  at  that  time  viewed  himself  such  an  unholy  and 
guilty  sinner,  so  that  lie  was  entirely  unworthy  to  con- 
verse with  such  holy  and  sanctified  persons,  as  he  at 
that  time  conceived  the  Methodist  clergy  to  be  ;  when 
he  inwardly  sighed,  and  wished  that  it  would  please 
God  to  make  him  one  day  as  good  as  he  at  that  time 
viewed  the  Methodist  ministers  to  be  ;  and  when  he 
went  to  meeting  the  ensuing  sabbath  and  viewing  these 
men  of  God  as  they  came  in  at  the  meeting  house  door, 
and  walked  up  the  aisle  of  the  same  towards  the  pulpit, 
they  appeard  to  this  poor  self  condemned  prodigal, 
more  like  celestial  beings,  than  belonging  to  a  race  of 
sinful  men,  in  a  word  they  appeared  to  be  like  the  angels 
of  God  :  and  on  the  ensuing  Lord's  day  he  rose  early 
and  took  a  light  breakfast,  and  went  into  the  city  to  an 
early  prayer  meeting,  in  the  house  of  Mr.  Smith,  where 
a  number  of  young  persons  met  in  an  upper  garret  for 
social  praying  and  singing;  and  many  of  them  appeared 
to  be  happy  in  the  Lord,  and  professed  to  experience 
the  evidence  of  the  pardon  of  all  their  sins.  But  One- 
simus  stood  at  the  door  of  the  room,  and  was  afraid  to 
go  in  among  them,  notwithstanding  he  experienced  the 
guilt  and  power  of  sin  to  rest  onerously  on  his  heart  and 
conscience  ;  when  Satan  whispered  in  his  ear,  and  told 
him  to  take  a  candid  view  of  those  poor  wretches  on 
their  knees  at  prayer,  which  at  that  moment  became  so 
revulsive  to  his  carnal  mind,  and  disgustful  to  his  un- 
humbled  heart — when  with  the  Jews  in  our  Lord's 
days  on  earth,  he  said  to  himself — this  is  an  hard  case 
for  human  nature  to  bear,  and  must  we  be  brought  to 
debase  ourselves  in  this  sort,  in  order  to  obtain  the  evi- 
dence of  the  pardon  of  our  sins  ;  so  after  standing  some 
time  listening  to  their  prayers  and  viewing  their  humil- 


108 

iation,  he  left  them  calling  on  the  name  of  the  Lord  ; 
and  like  the  young  man  in  the  gospel,  he  went  away 
very  sorrowful,  for  he  was  very  rich  with  the  leprosy 
of  the  carnal  mind  ;  and  he  did  not  go  any  more  that 
summer,  to  the  young  men's  sabbath  morning  prayer 
meetings,  and  as  we  have  already  said  he  left  the  meet- 
ing with  a  sorrowful  mind  :  still  he  went  to  hear  the 
preaching  in  the  forenoon  of  the  same  day,  when  his 
soul  was  somewhat  refreshed  under  the  sermon,  which 
was  almost  invariably  the  case  under  the  preaching  of 
the  gospel  in  those  days;  after  the  forenoon  service 
was  over,  he  went  out  of  the  city  on  the  commons  to- 
wards the  Schuylkill,  and  in  one  of  the  fields  he  sat 
down,  and  took  out  his  small  pocket  bible  and  read  the 
same,  and  tried  to  view  and  meditate  on  the  works  of 
nature,  fasting  at  the  same  time  from  early  in  the  morn- 
ing till  late  in  the  evening:  shortly  after  this  as  he  was 
in  the  act  of  throwing  up  water,  with  a  wooden  instru- 
ment or  scoop,  such  as  sailors  use  in  wetting  the  sides 
of  their  vessel,  in  warm  latitudes  or  dry  seasons  of  the 
year — the  sun  being  at  the  same  time  a  few  degrees 
above  the  horizon ;  and  it  came  to  pass,  that  as  the  rays 
of  light  from  the  sun  passed  through  the  falling  drops 
of  water,  that  at  a  little  distance  he  saw  that  it  created 
for  a  moment,  a  number  of  small  rainbows  ;  which  gave 
the  adversary  an  opportunity  in  consequence  of  his  dark 
and  doubting  mind,  to  take  advantage  of  his  weakness, 
and  then  whispered  in  his  ear — how  remarkable  easy  it 
was  for  that  sly — that  artful  Egyptian  magician  Moses, 
in  the  short  account  he  has  given  mankind,  in  his  cosmo- 
graphy of  that  wonderful  display  of  the  energies  of  | the 
author  of  nature  ;  how  easy,  said  Satan,  it  was  from  this 
little  experiment  you  have  made  respecting  this  won- 
derful phenomena  in  the  visible  heavens,  for  so  shrewd 
a  character  as  Moses  was,  to  make  the  dull  and  unculti- 
vated Hebrews  whose  time  was  occupied  in  the  brick- 
kilns of  Egypt,  we  say  how  easy  it  was  for  this  artful 
Moses,  to  take  the  advantage  of  the  Jews,  by  making 
them  believe  that  this  wonderful  sign  in  the  natural 
heavens,  was  a  special  production  of  the  divine  agency, 
by  calling  it  an  everlasting  covenant  between  God  and 


109 

every  living  creature,  or  between  Noah  and  his  posteri- 
ty :  when  the  Devil  whispered  into  his  mind,  you  see 
this  day  by  ocular  demonstration,  from  the  ordinary 
conjunction  of  the  elements  upon  or  through  each  other, 
that  you  can  make  the  seal  or  token  of  a  covenant,  (and 
God  said  unto  Noah,  this  is  the  token  of  the  covenant 
which  I  have  established  between  me  and  all  flesh  that 
is  upon  the  earth,)  so  that  you  see  that  you  have  at  this 
moment  discovered  the  grand  secret  of  this  artful  con- 
trivance of  that  old  magician  Moses ;  and  you  now  see 
you  can  make  more  little  rainbows  than  Moses  did  for 
old  Noah. 


L 


110 


No.  1.  The  ship  Perseverance  having  her  decks  and  sides  wet  in 
dry  weather. 

No.  2.  Onesimus  in  the  act  of  watering  the  ship's  sides,  when  he 
sees  small  rainbows  on  a  little  island,  at  a  short  distance. 

No.  3.  The  small  island  on  which  his  little  rainbows  appears,  as  he 
throws  up  the  water  in  the  air. 

No.  4.  The  old  Leviathian,  or  sea-sarpent,  in  scripture  called  the 
Devil  and  Satan,  with  his  barbed  or  forked  tongue,  whispering 
into  his  ear,  that  he  now  had  a  fair  opportunity  of  detecting  old 
Moses,  with  his  pious  fraud,  which  he  so  artfully  imposed  on 
the  children  of  Israel,  when  they  were  poor  ignorant  slaves  in 
the  land  of  Egypt. 


Thus  said  Satan,  or  suggested  to  his  mind,  that  Moses 
obtained  his  rainbow  and  everlasting  covenant  from  a 
common  or  natural  cause  ;  and  had  the  Egyptian-like 
address  and  magical  wisdom  to  impose  the  same  on  the 
poor,  ignorant,  and  superstitious  Hebrews,  as  a  special 
and  miraculous  act  in  favour  of  old  Noah  and  his  poste- 
rity. So  that  these  little  rainbows,  that  he  made  by 
throwing  up  the  water  with  his  wooden  scoop  that  af- 
ternoon, was  the  cause  through  the  agency  of  the  Devil, 
of  worrying  his  mind  more  or  less  for  some  weeks,  during 
which  time  the  adversary  most  powerfully  tempted  him 


Ill 

to  doubt  the  truth  of  the  whole  five  books  of  Moses, 
and  of  course  the  whole  of  the  Bible  altogether.     But 
after  the  rainbow  war  with  the  Devil,  had  a  little  sub- 
sided, he  still  went  to  worship  ;  and  as  he  was  wander- 
ing about  the  commons  of  Philadelphia,  early  on  Lord's 
day  morning,  and  being  much  tempted  and  worried  in 
his  mind  about  the  truth  of  the  scriptures,  and  the  im- 
mortality of  the  human  soul,  and  also  the  full  or  su- 
preme Godhead  of  Christ ;    he  perchance  met  several 
small   children   belonging  to  some   poor  families,  who 
lived  in  a  small   cabin  on   the  commons  that  summer  ; 
and  the  little  ones  being  rather  dirty  and  most  of  them 
but  half  clothed,  when  some  hidden  agency  at  that  time 
not  to  him  distinctly  known,  most  powerfully  whispered 
in  his  ear,  and  seemed  at  the  same  time  to   reason  with 
him  ;  and  then  asked  him  why  he  made  such  a  fool  of 
himself,  as  to  think  and  trouble  himself  about  the  im- 
mortality of  his  soul ;  and  then  told  him  to  take  a  view 
of  these  little  dirty  wretches,  and  can  you  believe  that 
such  poor  miserable  creatures  as  they  are,  have  an  im- 
mortal principle  or  soul,  that  is  destined  to  live  forever  ? 
When  he  was  led  to  reflect  on  the  conversation  of  the 
lady  and  doctor,  in  the  cabin  of  the  ship  Harmony  in 
1786,  and  their  views  of  Christ,  and  their  own  immor- 
tality ;  when  he  was  led  also  to  reflect  on  the  popular 
sentiments  of  that  day,  how  many  of  the  great  and  wise 
men  of  this  world,  such  as  kings,  princes,  statesmen, 
philosophers,  lawyers,  physicians,  and  thousands  of  the 
wise  and  rich  people  in  every  nation,  how  few  of  them 
give  themselves  any  serious  concern  about  Christ  and  a 
coining  world?    When  the  Devil  gave  Onesimus  a  hard 
thrust,  which  was  instantly  followed  with  a  most  power- 
ful temptation  to  curse  God,  Christ,  and  the  Bible,  and 
the  foolish  nonsense  of  immortality  :  when  Satan  left  him 
for  a  season,  and  he  groaned  within  himself,  and  wished 
with  Job,  he  had  never  been  born  to  experience  such  a 
life  of  doubt  and  perplexity.     When  he  went  towards 
the  city,  and  said  to  himself,  that  he  would  go  and  hear 
another  sermon  before  he  gave  up  the  ship  Persever- 
ance ;   and  when  he  got  into  the  meeting  house  and 


212 

heard  the  preaching,  his  doubts  for  the  time  being  pas- 
sed away,  during  the  rest  of  that  sabbath  day ;  never- 
theless, they  returned  to  him  most  powerfully  through 
the  rest  of  the  week,  when  the  Devil  presented  to  his 
mind  his  little  rainbows,  and  the  poor  and  dirty  little 
children  ;  but  he  still  went  on  his  way  in  the  use  of  the 
different  means  of  grace,  so  as  to  abstract  his  mind  from 
the  things  and  concerns  of  this  vain  and  sinful  world, 
in  order  if  it  were  possible  to  obtain  a  realizing  view, 
and  a  satisfactory  evidence  of  the  truth  of  the  Bible: 
and  in  order  thereunto  he  would  leave  his  father'^ 
house  early,  but  more  especially  so  on  Lord's  day  morn- 
ings, and  go  into  the  grave  yards  and  meditate  among 
the  tombs,  always  having  his  Bible  with  him,  he  there- 
fore read  the  scriptures  most  attentively,  and  thought 
how  happy  must  they  be  who  had  faith  to  believe  the 
gospel  report,  and  lay  hold  of  the  promise  of  eternal 
life,  but  he  was  so  full  of  doubt,  fear,  and  unbelief,  so 
that  he  could  not  by  a  living  principle  of  faith,  lay  held 
of  a  single  promise  in  all  the  oracles  of  God,  so  as  tc  ap- 
ply them  in  a  special  sense  to  his  own  case ;  so  that  the 
apostle  John's  elucidation  of  the  new  birth,  was  fully 
illustrated  in  his  own  case ;  to  wit,  that  as  many  as  re- 
ceived him,  to  them  gave  he  power  to  become  the  sons 
of  God  ;  even  to  them  that  believe  on  his  name,  which 
were  born  not  of  blood,  nor  of  the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor 
of  the  will  of  man  (nor  modern  schemes),  but  of  God  : 
thus  the  wind  of  temptation  in  his  case,  bloweth  where 
it  listeth,  and  he  oftentimes  heard  the  sound,  and  felt 
the  effects  thereof ;  but  as  yet  he  could  not  distinctly 
tell  from  whence  it  came,  nor  whither  it  goeth,  so  is 
every  one  that  is  born  of  the  spirit;  so  the  more  he  fast- 
ed and  prayed,  the  further  he  seemed  to  be  from  the 
kingdom  of  God,  and  as  he  was  so  little  acquainted  at 
that  time,  with  the  different  views  entertained  by  the 
various  sects  in  the  outward  christian  world  about  ab-. 
stract  points  of  doctrine,  for  all  that  he  understood 
about  the  plan  or  scheme  of  the  gospel — was,  that  Jesus 
Christ  came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners,  of  whom  with 
Paul  he  might  truly  say,  that  he  was  the  chief.  And 
it  came  to  pass,  shortly  after  these  things,  that  as  he 


113 

was  on  a  Sunday  morning  (about  the  latter  end  of  Au- 
gust, 1791,)  in  deep  thought  ambulating  the  commons, 
between  the  city  and  the  Schuylkill  river,  he  perchance 
saw  the  bones  and  skulls  of  some  animals  laying  on  the 
ground  :  when  he  went  and  took  up  one  of  the  skulls, 
and  viewed  and  examined  the  skull  as  minutely  as  he 
could,  when  he  thought  there  was  so  little  difference  in 
the  construction  and  organization  of  the  human  subject, 
with  that  of  the  rest  of  the  animal  creation,  so  that  there 
was  nothing  certain  either  in  the  formation  or  construc- 
tion of  mankind,  so  as  to  lead  to  any  certainty  in  order 
to  decide  the  case  at  issue  ;  viz.,  whether  man  is — or  is 
not  an  immortal  being,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  creation 
only  ephemeral  beings  ;  so  that  in  the  article  of  death 
they  perish  forever.  When  the  tempter  insinuated  to 
him  to  go  and  find  out  the  exact  line  of  demarcation  be- 
tween the  rational  and  irrational  part  of  the  creation,  when 
Sat&n  brought  to  his  mind  the  physicians  who  had  dis- 
sected such  millions  of  mankind,  as  well  as  beasts  and 
birds  ;  and  many  of  them  never  could  discover  the  least 
trace  of  that  amphibious  creature  of  two  worlds,  with 
which  Moses  the  prophet,  and  apostle  of  Christ,  have 
enslaved  mankind.  After  the  Devil  had  suggested  these 
skeptical  ideas  to  his  mind,  Satan  then  pressed  on  his 
thoughts  a  number  of  other  difficulties  that  lay  in  the 
way  of  the  soul's  immortallity  in  the  cases  of  generation, 
gestation  and  abortions,  also  with  the  cases  of  drowned 
persons :  when  he  suggested  to  him  to  go  and  make  the 
experiment,  and  take  a  number  of  flies  and  drown  them 
in  water,  till  you  are  fully  convinced  that  animal  life 
has  fully  to  all  appearance  departed  from  them:  and  as 
the  idea  was  entirely  new  to  him,  he  went  and  drowned 
some  flies,  and  then  let  them  lay  out  of  the  water  for 
some  time,  and  examined  them  and  fully  satisfied  him- 
self that  they  were  all  dead  ;  when  he  went  and  pulver- 
ized a  piece  of  chalk,  and  took  his  apparently  dead 
flies  and  then  buried  them  in  his  pulverized  chalk,  on 
a  table  before  the  sun  :  and  in  less  than  an  hour  he  saw 
a  small  and  desultory  motion  in  his  little  mountain  of 
chalk,  and  soon  after  his  little  drowned  army  of  insects 
came  out  of  the  dark  dungeons  of  death,  and  after  vi- 


114 

"v 
brating  their  little  wings  in  the  rays  of  the  sun  a  few- 
times,  they  spread  the  same  and  flew  off:  leaving  poor 
Onesimus   like  an  aspen  leaf  trembling  in  the  wind's 
eye  of  doubt  and  fear. 

And  a  few  days  after  the   fly  experiment,  several 
persons  were  drowned  in  the  Delaware,  and  one  or  two 
of  them  were  resuscitated,  or  restored  to  life  by  the 
application  of  the  apparatus  in  those  cases  provided. 
When  the  adversary  onerously  came  down  upon  him, 
and  advised  him  to  give  up  the  voyage  in  pursuit  of  the 
souPs  immortality  :  and  you  have  now,  said  the  tempter, 
made  such  plain  physical  and  ocular  demonstration,  of 
the  impossibility  ever  to  fully  ascertain  the  future  ex- 
istence of  the  human  race  :  which  you  see  this  day  you 
have  so  evidently  and  most  indubitably  made  manifest 
in  the  case  of  the  fly  experiment,  and  the  drowned 
who  were  resuscitated,  or  like  the  flies  brought  back 
to  life  again.    When  Satan  suggested  to  his  mind,  where 
was  the  spirit  or  soul  of  the  drowned  persons  during  the 
suspension  of  animal  life  ?     Why,  says  the  Devil,  just 
exactly  in  the  very  same   predicament  of  the  spirits 
or  souls  of  the  flies  you  drowned,  and  thus  brought 
them  to  life  again,  and  could  those  little  insects  give  you 
any  satisfactory  account  where  their  little  spirits  had 
been  during  the  time  of  their  vacation  from  the  school 
of  animal  life.     Neither  has  it  ever  been  known  to  this 
day,  that  from  the  number  of  drowned  persons  who 
have  been  restored  to  life  again,  they  have  never  given 
their  friends  or  mankind  in  general,  any  clear  or  satis- 
factory account  of  either  the  existence  or  state  of  the 
soul,  during  the  suspension  of  all  the  functions  of  ani- 
mal life,  as  the  body  lay  immersed  in  the  water.    When 
the  Devil  whispered  in  his  mind,  do  you  not  clearly 
see,  that  the  fly  and  the  man  were  both  alike  equally 
unconscious  of  their  own  immortality.     When   Satan 
continued  his  metaphysical  parable,  and  brought  t>  his 
view  a  whole  cargo  of  wild  and  civilized  men,  and  wild 
and  tame  animals;   and  then  beginning  with  the  lowest 
condition  of  some  of  the  branches  of  the  human  race, 
and  then  informed  him   that  notwithstanding  the  appa- 
rent want  of  the  faculties  of  speech,  which  seemed  to 


115 

be  necessary  to  constitute  them  intelligent  beings,  yet 
the  instinctive  power  of  many  of  them  do  outlive  and 
outshine  many  of  the  lower  grades  of  the  race  of  men. 
And  Satan  then  referred  him  to  the  ourang-outang,  and 
all  the  rest  of  the  ape  and  monkey  tribes,  but  in  a  more 
special  point  of  view,  the  wonderful  instinct  of  the  bea- 
ver, in  its  remarkable  sagacity  and  almost  human  art  in 
planning  and  forming  its  dams  as  a  reservoir  to  retain 
the  water,  and  breed  fish  for  the  future  sustenance  of 
himself  and  family.  And  then  displaying  its  wisdom 
like  an  artist,  in  the  construction  and  building  of  its 
habitations,  almost  with  the  apparent  wisdom  of  old 
Noah,  with  first,  second  and  third  stories  ;  so  that  in 
case  of  a  flood,  or  the  rising  of  the  water  in  heavy  rains, 
the  beaver  with  the  antediluvian  patriarch,  might  save 
himself  and  family  in  times  of  danger.  Satan  then  re- 
ferred him  to  the  wonderful  sagacity  of  the  elephant, 
and  then  asked  him  to  contrast  the  sagacity,  instinct  and 
apparent  intelligence,  of  some  of  the  irrational  part  of 
the  creation,  and  compare  the  same  with  the  stolidity 
and  worse  than  brutish  ignorance  of  countless  millions  of 
what  is  called  the  human  race.  After  this  the  Devil 
pestered  his  mind  with  the  process  of  the  embryo,  in 
the  season  of  gestation  ;  when  Satan  asked  him  if  he  had 
any  knowledge  of  at  what  acme  or  stage  of  this  hidden  and 
mysterious  operation  of  nature :  this  immortal  princi- 
ple is  so  very  secretly  communicated  to  the  embryo  of 
the  parent,  so  that  if  both  should  die  the  same  hour  af- 
ter its  arrival  in  its  liquid  location — what  then  says 
Satan  to  him,  becomes  of  this  little  humming-bird  of 
immortality?  so  that  if  it  should  perhaps  lose  its  im- 
mortal plumage  in  one  hour,  why  not  on  the  principles 
of  sound  logic  lose  the  little  spectre  in  one  year,  and  if 
lost  for  one  year,  why  not  in  the  name  of  common 
sense  may  it  not  be  lost  forever.  So  that  you  see  the 
chance  of  the  immortality  of  mankind,  is  a  very  flimsy 
castle  built  by  designing  men  in  the  air  of  religious 
vanity  :  so  that  you  had  better  take  my  friendly  advice 
and  give  up  making  yourself  such  a  melancholy  fool  any 
longer :   curse  God  if  you  believe  there  is  any  such  a 


116 

being,  that  can  exist  independent  of  the  eternal  laws  of 
matter,  and  quit  going  to  Methodist  meetings  any  more : 
when  the  enemy  pestered  him  more  or  less  throughout 
the  following  week  with  a  cargo  of  wild  men,  beasts  and 
birds,  so  that  he  longed  for  the  returning  Lord's  day 
that  he*might  hear  the  gospel  once  more. 


117 


No.  1  The  gallant  ship  of  nature  commanded  by  Satan,  with  a  full 
cargo  of  wild  beasts,  in  order  to  confound  the  mind  of  Onesi- 
mus,  and  cause  him  to  relinquish  his  foolish  pursuit  of  ever 
finding  the  region  of  the  immortality  of  the  human  soul. 

No.  2.  Onesimus  in  his  boat,  hailing  the  ship  of  nature  ;  when  Satan 
under  the  mask  of  friendship  advises  him  not  to  pursue  so 
dangerous  a  voyage,  as  it  would  only  terminate  in  the  loss  of 
himself  and  ship  ;  as  no  one  has  ever  yet  been  heard  of  who 
has  embarked  in  that  hazardous  expedition  in  search  of  that 
unknown  region,  so  as  to  inform  us  in  what  latitude  or  longi- 
tude the  country  lies  in.  And  it  came  to  pass,  after  the  Devil 
had  given  him  what  counsel  he  thought  proper,  Onesimus  wish- 
ed him  safe  into  port  (of  hell),  and  bid  him  farewell. 

No.  3.  The  ship  Perseverance  met  by  the  Devil,  who  by  way  of 
disguised  friendship,  advises  Onesimus  to  turn  back  to  the 
world  a^ain. 


And  he  arose  early  on  the  ensuing  sabbath,  and  after 
the  morning  service  was  over,  Onesimus  went  out  to 
the  commons  near  the  Schuylkill,  to  his  old  place  of 
resort  in  the  summer  season  of  the  year,  for  about  an 
hour  :  and  knowing  that  there  was  to  be  a  prayer  meet- 
ing in  one  of  the  poor  sister's  houses  in  Cherry  alley, 
between  the  fore  and  afternoon  services,  where  a  num- 
ber of  very  zealous  young  people  met  to  spend  an  hour 


118 

or  more  in  singing  and  prayer ;  and  as  he  came  rather 
early,  when  he  found  but  three  elderly  sisters  in  the 
room  with  a  few  old  rush  bottomed  chairs,  and  a  pine 
table  in  the  centre  of  the  room,  and  an  old  smoky  bible 
lying  on  the  same.  And  as  the  whole  of  the  persons 
and  apparatus  in  the  room  seemed  to  wear  such  a 
gloomy  and  melancholy  appearance  to  him  at  that  mo- 
ment, Satan  artfully  whispered  into  his  ear,  what  an 
arrant  fool  he  was  making  of  himself,  to  spend  his  youth- 
ful days  in  such  a  place  and  with  such  poor  and  low 
company  as  this:  when  some  powerful  and  invisible 
agency  seemed  to  be  raising  him  from  off  his  seat,  and 
told  him  to  go  and  throw  the  dirty  old  book  into.the  little 
lire  that  was  remaining  on  the  hearth,  till  his  heart  was 
almost  ready  to  sink  within  him,  for  fear  he  should  do 
the  awful  deed  :  the  invisible  agency  or  secret  power 
at  that  moment  was  so  great,  that  it  took  all  the  phy- 
sical and  mental  prowess  that  this  poor  sinful  and  unre- 
generated  sinner  could  call  into  requisition,  to  keep 
himself  on  his  seat.  Just  at  the  time  of  this  hard  strug- 
gle with  the  Devil,  the  young  praying  brethren  came 
in,  and  began  to  sing  and  pray;  when  the  adver- 
sary left  him  for  that  season,  and  their  prayers  relieved 
his  soul  from  the  awful  and  dreadful  struggle  he  had 
had  that  hour  with  the  Devil.  And  as  soon  as  the 
prayer  meeting  had  been  ended  he  went  to  meeting, 
and  experienced  some  comfort  under  the  sermon,  and 
Satan  was  never  suffered  to  tempt  him  to  burn  the 
scriptures  in  such  sort  any  more. 

About  this  period  there  was  a  great  excitement  in 
the  Methodist  society,  and  numbers  of  young  and  some 
old  people,  were  in  a  few  days  or  weeks,  reported  to 
have  been  converted,  and  professed  to  find  peace  with 
God,  through  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ :  and  many 
of  these  newly  converted  sinners  to  all  appearance,  were 
filled  with  the  love  of  God,  and  also  exhorting  poor 
sinners  to  repent  and  seek  the  Lord.  But  Onesimus 
was  too  full  of  doubt  and  unbelief,  to  lay  hold  of  the 
promised  blessing,  when  he  was  led  to  conclude  that  he 
was  so  vile  a  sinner,  that  there  was  no  mercy  for  him 
either  in  heaven  or  on  earth. 


119 

We  shall  now  close  the  log-book  of  the  ship  Perse- 
verance, till  we  have  another  breeze  from  off  the  bluff 
of  mount  Sinai,  and  if  our  ship  clears  the  mount  in 
safety,  we  will  write  to  you  again  on  the  subject  of  im- 
mortality. 

Onesimus. 
To  Elder  Joseph  Maylin. 

Port  of  Philadelphia.  1791. 


120 


LETTER   XIV. 


Dear  Sir: 

Our  last  letter  left  Onesimus  almost  without  hope, 
and  on  the  borders  of  despair,  and  in  sight  of  the  lower- 
ing bluff  of  Sinai  ;   and  when  the  month  of  December 
1791,  came  in,  there  was  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer 
set  apart  by  the  governor  of  Pennsylvania,  or  else  by 
the  clergy  of  the  city,  we  do  not  at  this  length  of  time 
distinctly  recollect  which,  when  his  father  and  family 
went  to  the  city  to  worship.     But  Onesimus  tarried  at 
home,  and  concluded  that  he  would  spend  the  fast  day 
in  the  exercise  of  fasting,  praying  and  reading  the  scrip- 
tures ;  and  as  he  had  heard  some  of  the  methodists  and 
their  class  leaders  often  assert,  that  a  true  and  sincere 
seeker  of  religion,  need  not  go  without  the  blessing : 
which  was  the  language  in  use  by  the  methodists  when 
speaking  on  the  subject  of  our  watchword,  ye  must  be 
born  again,  or  the  wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  so  is 
every  one  that  is  born  of  the  spirit.     When  he  said  to 
himself,  I  shall  on  this  fast  day  make  the  demonstration, 
and  put  the  almighty  to  the  test  of  his  word  of  promise. 
As  soon  the  family  were  off  to  the  city,  he  took  his 
Bible,  and  went  into  a  small  room  in  his  father's  factory, 
with  a  full  determination  in  his  own  mind  and  moral 
strength,  not  to  leave  the  same  until  the  Lord  had  given 
him  the  evidence  of  the^pardun  of  his  sins.     And  when 
he  had  locked  himself  up  in  the  little  room,  he  opened 
his  Bible  and  read  a  chapter,  and  then  kneeled  and 
prayed  as  fervently  as  he  could,  and  rose  and  read  a 
chapter  and  prayed  the  second  time,  and  thus  he  con- 
tinued kneeling,  praying  and  reading  for  about  twenty 
rounds,  (as  near  as  he  can  recollect  to  this  day),  till  the 
day  had  nearly  worn  off,  but  there  was  none  at  that 
time  that  appeared  either  to  hear  or  regard  his  prayers  : 
so  that  Onesimus  had  at  this  time  to  give  up  taking  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  by  holy  violence,  and  had  to  come 
out  of  his  room  with  a  hard  and  unbelieving  heart;  and 


121 

with  a  mind  overcast  with  legal  darkness,  when  Sinai^s 
loud  trumphet  sounded  louder  and  louder  in  his  ears  : — 
"  cursed  is  every  one  that  continueth  not  in  all  things 
which  are  written  in  the  book  of  the  law  to  do  them." 
And  after  this  legal  effort  to  storm  the  citadel  of  Zion, 
or  to  take  the  kingdom  of  heaven  by  by  the  violence  of 
reading,  fasting  and  praying,  he  became  melancholy 
and  was  very  near  the  verge  of  despair,  and  at  the  same 
time  had  lost  sight  of  the  magnanimous  fortitude  of  the 
four  leprous  men  at  the  gate  of  Samaria ;  when  Satan 
the  god  of  this  world  suggested  to  his  mind  that  he  had 
sinned  away  his  day  of  grace,  and  that  it  was  now  too 
late  to  cast  himself  on  the  mercy  of  God,  but  with  the 
four  leprous  men  he  also  saw  the  danger  of  entering 
again  into  the  city,  or  returning  again  to  the  unfruitful 
works  of  darkness.  He  now  began  to  see  like  the 
blind  men  in  the  gospel — spiritual  things  at  a  distance — 
so  that  if  he  was  ever  saved  it  must  be  by  the  sovereign 
and  unmerited  grace  of  God  :  when  this  scripture  pre- 
sented itself  to  his  mind,  "  And  the  Lord  said  unto 
Moses,  'Therefore  criest  thou  unto  me,  speak  unto  the 
children  of  Israel,  that  they  go  forward,' "  Exodus,  xiv. 
15.  Notwithstanding  Pharoah  and  his  army  were  in 
their  rearward,  Pihahiroth,  Migdol  and  Baal-zephon, 
were  on  either  side  as  ports  of  entry,  or  strong  fortifi- 
cations, and  the  Red  Sea  in  their  front,  so  that  there 
appeared  no  possible  way  of  their  escaping  the  rage  of 
Pharaoh  and  his  army,  yet  the  Lord  through  Moses 
commands  Israel  to  go  forward.  When  the  spirit  said 
unto  him,  your  case  surely  is  not  more  desperate  than 
theirs  was  ?  the  same  spirit  brought  to  his  mind  that 
very  comfortable  invitation  to  Israel  under  their  seven- 
ty years  captivity  :  "  Turn  ye  to  the  strong  hold,  ye 
prisoners  of  hope,  even  to  day  do  I  declare  that  I  will 
render  double  unto  them.  When  he  longed  to  ascertan 
whether  such  a  poor  law- condemned  sinner  as  he  was 
in  his  own  estimation  at  that  time,  dare  to  claim  the 
encourageable  appellative  in  the  sight  of  God,  of  a  pri- 
soner of  hope.  Shortly  after  this  he  was  most  power- 
fully tempted  by  the  Devil  to  believe  that  he  had  com- 
mitted the  unpardonable  sin,  or  the   sin  unto  death, 

M 


122 

which  St.  John  rather  seems  to  doubt  whether  it  was 
lawful  for  the  church  of  Christ  to  pray  in  his  day  for 
the  forgiveness  of  the  same,  but  nevertheless,  the  word 
of  command  given  unto  Moses  in  the  behalf  of  Israel, 
oftentimes  revibrated  through  his  mind,  that  it  was  still 
his  duty  to  go  forward,  although  the  Devil  as  a  great 
mountain  stood  before  him  in  order  to  hide  the  door  of 
hope  and  mercy  from  his  sight,  in  order  to  block  up  his 
way  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  as  he  did  in  the  case  of 
Zorobabel,  and  the  Lord  said  unto  Satan,  the  Lord 
rebukes  thee,  O !  Satan,  even  the  Lord  that  hath  chosen 
Jerusalem  rebukes  thee;  is  not  this  a  brand  plucked 
out  of  the  lire,  iii.  2-4-7.  When  another  passage  of 
scripture  came  by  the  agency  of  the  holy  spirit  sudden- 
ly into  his  mind  :  Who  is  among  you  that  feareth  the 
Lord,  that  obeyeth  the  voice  of  his  servant,  that  walk- 
eth  in  darkness  and  hath  no  light,  let  him  trust  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord,  and  stay  upon  his  God  ;  Isaiah,  1.  10. 
This  was  truly  the  case  in  those  days  with  the  deep  ex- 
ercises of  his  mind,  for  he  most  certainly  wished  to  fear 
the  Lord,  but  he  walked  under  a  heavy  cloud  which 
was  at  that  time  so  very  impervious  to  his  soul  that 
scarcely  a  single  a  ray  of  hope  could  pass  through  the 
moral  darkness  that  hung  over  his  distressed  and  almost 
melancholy  mind. 

About  this  time  several  of  the  young  men  of  the  me- 
thodist  society,  observing  that  he  attended  the  public 
worship  of  what  they  called  St.  George's  Church  in 
Fourth  street,  for  some  length  of  time,  and  was  often 
seen  by  thern  in  great  distress  of  mind,  and  had  often- 
times been  invited  by  them  to  come  to  their  class  meet- 
ings, but  as  those  meetings  were  so  very  repulsive  to 
the  pride  of  his  carnal  mind,  so  that  he  kept  aloof  from 
them  ;  but  by  this  time  the  Lord  had  caused  a  smart 
breeze  from  Sinai's  bluff  to  blow  away  all  his  hopes  of 
ever  obtaining  the  pardon  of  his  sins  by  all  his  praying, 
fasting,  and  reading  the  scriptures  on  his  knees  before 
God,  which  could  not  save  him  should  he  continue  in 
the  exercise  of  those  means  to  to  the  hour  of  his  death  : 
so  that  if  God  did  not  show  him  mercy  for  the  sake  of 
the  merits  and  atonement  of  Jesus  Christ,  he  must  be 


123 

damned  forever.  After  this  he  had  such  an  awful  view 
of  the  holiness  of  God  and  the  righteous  sanction  of  his 
royal  law,  with  a  discovery  of  the  exceeding  sinfulness 
of  his  fallen  nature,  so  that  when  he  went  to  meeting 
he  often  wondered  that  the  earth  did  not  part  asunder 
and  swallow  him  up,  as  in  the  case  of  Korah  and  his 
company :  thus  he  went  on  in  this  fearful  exercise  of 
mind  for  some  weeks,  till  aoout  the  last  of  the  year 
1791,  when  he  went  to  one  of  the  methodist  class  meet- 
ings in  which  a  number  of  young  men  met  for  the  pur- 
pose of  praying  with  and  for  each  other,  and  stating  the 
various  trials  and  temptations  they  vv^re  exposed  to  from 
the  vain  allurements  of  this  sinful  world,  such  as  the 
powerful  excitements  of  sense,  and  the  insidious  sug- 
gestions of  the  Devil.  But  as  soon  as  he  entered  the 
class-room,  a  small  gleam  of  hope  passed  through  his 
mind,  that  perhaps  God  at  last  might  have  mercy  on 
him  ;  the  young  men  prayed  that  evening  most  fervent- 
ly for  him,  when  he  experienced  a  small  degree  of  en- 
couragement not  to  give  up  the  ship  Perseverance,  but 
to  press  forward  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  did  not 
obtain  that  evening  a  clear  knowledge  of  his  justification 
in  the  pardon  of  his  sins,  in  the  sight  of  God.  After 
the  class  meeting  ended,  he  went  home  to  his  father's 
house  with  a  distant  hope  that  kind  heaven  at  last  was 
about  being  propitious  towards  him.  After  this  he 
longed  for  the  evening  to  arrive  when  the  class-meeting 
should  meet  again  ;  so  he  went  the  second  time,  (the 
house  is  still  standing,  No.  163  north  Front  Street, 
Philadelphia,)  and  as  soon  as  he  entered  the  room,  a 
divine  hope  darted  through  his  whole  soul  that  God  was 
about  to  show  mercy  towards  him:  when  he  went  to  the 
northeast  corner  of  the  room,  where  the  class  met,  and 
kneeled  and  then  began  to  call  on  the  name  of  the  Lord 
to  have  mercy  on  him.  The  young  men  at  the  same 
time,  also  prayed  most  fervently  at  the  throne  of  grace 
in  his  behalf,  and  as  the  enormous  bnrden  of  sin  and 
death  lay  heavy  on  his  soul  and  rested  on  his  mind, 
when  he  fully  experienced  what  Paul  had  written  of 
the  law-condemned  sinner  to  be  true,  in  his  own  case  : 
09  wretched  man  that  I  am !  who  shall  deliver  me  from 


124 

the  body  of  this  death  ?  At  that  moment,  he  whose 
voice  is  as  the  sound  of  many  waters,  said  both  by  his 
word  and  spirit,  come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labour  and 
are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest  And  at  that 
moment  the  heavy  load  of  sin  and  death  fell  to  the 
ground,  when  he  was  enabled  by  faith  to  see  the  Saviour 
transfixed  on  the  cross ;  when  herose  from  his  knees  and 
declared  to  his  young  brethren  what  the  Lord  had  done 
for  his  soul.  The  meeting  being  ended,  he  went  home 
to  his  father's  house,  about  tvvo  miles  from  the  house 
where  the  prayer-meeting  was  held,  and  looking  up  on 
the  natural  heavens,  every  star  proclaimed  the  power 
and  wisdom  of  its  divine  author.  So  that  on  his 
way  home  he  wanted  the  wings  of  the  celestial  dove 
that  he  might  at  once  fly  away  from  this  sinful  world, 
in  order  to  worship  God  and  the  Lamb  forever.  He 
now  stood  in  no  need  of  arguments  to  prove  the  exist- 
ence of  a  wise  and  powerful  God,  and  the  truth  of  the 
gospel  of  his  dear  Son  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ :  and  as  Paul  writes  to  the  Church  of  Christ  at 
Rome,  that  the  invisible  things  of  the  nature  and  at- 
tributes  of  God  was  now  clearly  seen  by  this  young 
sailor,  even  his  eternal  power  and  Godhead. 


125 


No.  1.  The  young  sailor  enters  the  class-room  with  the  body  of  sin 

and  death  on  his  back. 
No.  2.  The  sailor  with  the  young  brethren  on  their  knees  calling 

on  God  the  father,   through  the   name  and  merits  of  his  Son 

Jesus  Christ,  to  have  mercy  upon  him,  and  deliver  him  from 

this  body  of  sin  and  death. 
No.  3.  The  heavy  load  of  sin  and  death  falls  to  the  ground,  when 

the  young  sailor  had   by  a  living  faith  a  view  of  the  Saviour 

transfixed  on  the  cross. 
No.  4.  The  young  sailor  declaring  to  his  young  brethren  what  the 

Lord  had  done  for  his  soul. 
No.  5.  The  young  sailor  on   his  way   home  to  his  father's  house. 

who  now  wants  no  theological  argument  to  prove  the  existence 

of  a  God. 


And  it  came  to  pass,  that  during  the  whole  of  that 
auspicious  and  memorable  night,  that  his  whole  soul 
was  so  filled  with  the  love  of  God  that  he  could  say  with 
the  apostle  John,  "  God  is  love,  and  he  that  dwelleth 
in  love,  dwelleth  in  God,  and  God  in  him.  Till  in  the 
embrace  of  sleep  he  swooned  away,  and  when  he  awoke 
in  the  morning  with  a  new  spiritual  vision,  the  sun 
seemed  to  preach  the  glory  and  majesty  of  its  God,  and 
the  whole  empire  of  nature  seeemed  to  join  with  the 
sailor  in  one  universal  anthem  of  joy  and  praise,  so  that 

M  2 


126 

he  could  truly  say,  salvation  is  of  the  Lord  :  after  this 
he  went  on  his  way  rejoicing,  and  telling  to  every  one 
what  a  dear  Saviour  he  had  found.  The  change  was 
so  great  that  all  earthly  inclinations  were  taken  from 
him,  so  that  he  could  only  say  with  the  poet,  to  all  the 
fascinating  allurements  of  sense, -away  all  ye  objects  that 
divert  or  seek  to  draw  from  my  dear  Lord  my  heart,  for 
his  loveliness  my  soul  hath  prepossessed  and  left  no  room 
for  any  other  guest. 

After  this  he  went  on  in  the  new  born  way  for  several 
weeks,  until  a  work  entitled,  "  the  saint's  everlasting 
rest,"  fell  into  his  hands,  when  he  was  led  to  see  that 
such  numbers  of  the  people  in  his  neighbourhood  who 
were  living  and  dying  in  their  sins,  and  as  the  author 
pointed  out  as  the  duty  of  every  newly  converted  soul, 
to  go  to  his  friends'  and  neighbours'  houses  and  read  the 
scriptures  and  converse  and  pray  with  them,  so  that 
during  the  months  of  January,  February  and  March, 
1792,  Onesimus  and  a  young  person  of  the  methodist 
society  by  the  name  of  Jesse  Smith,  adopted  Baxter's 
plan  of  warning  poor  sinners  to  flee  the  wrath  to  come. 
When  they  went  from  house  to  house  through  the  same 
village,  that  he  about  a  year  before  was  ashamed  to  be 
seen  going  through  on  the  Lord's  day  to  a  place  of 
worship  :  but  in  this  new  business  the  young  sailor  was 
the  chief  pioneer  in  endeavouring  to  he  instrumental  in 
bringing  his  friends  and  neighbours  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  truth.  And  as  soon  as  the  evening  shades  had 
spread  its  sable  empire  over  the  earth,  they  went  from 
house  to  house  knocking  at  the  doors  they  went  in, 
and  as  it  was  the  case  with  Paul  and  Barnabas  at  Lystra 
and  Derbe  cities  of  Lycaonia,  so  in  this  case  Onesimus 
was  the  chief  speaker  :  and  when  they  entered  a  house 
the  sailor  took  out  his  small  Bible  and  read  a  chapter, 
and  was  soon  led  by  the  holy  spirit  of  God,  who  so  en- 
larged his  heart  as  to  make  some  sententious  remarks  on 
the  small  portion  of  scripture  he  had  read  to  the  family, 
and  then  went  to  prayer  with  them.  And  although 
this  was  rather  a  daring  experiment  in  those  days,  as 
many  of  the  heads  of  those  families  were  rough  and  un- 
cultivated people,  but  the  solemn  appearance  and  rather 


127 

awful  voice  of  this  sailor,  seemed  in  general  to  overawe 
the  people  into  submission :  so  much  so,  that  they  were 
in  no  one  case  ordered  out  of  their  houses,  although  in 
those  days  he  was  heavily  surcharged  with  the  sulphur 
and  brimstone  of  hell-fire,  so  that  he  often  discharged 
a  volley  of  the  most  awful  denunciations  of  the  scripture 
against  unrepentant  sinners ;  yet  notwithstanding  his 
rough  and  sailor  like  way  of  preaching,  the  glorious 
gospel  of  God  our  Saviour  the  Lord,  was  his  panoply 
against  the  rage  of  men  and  devils  in  those  days  of 
abounding  infidelity  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia.  Short- 
ly after  this  he  became  so  very  zealous  for  the  cause  of 
his  new  master  and  immortality,  that  if  he  met  any  per- 
son using  bad  language  in  the  streets  of  the  city,  he 
would  exhort  them  to  repent,  or  else  tell  them  they 
would  be  damned  and  sent  to  hell.  Shortly  after  this 
as  he  wTas  returning  home  from  the  evening  preaching, 
in  what  was  called  St.  George's  Church,  in  company 
with  a  number  of  the  zealous  young  brethren,  they  pas- 
sed a  house  in  the  Northern  Liberties  where  a  number 
of  persons  of  both  sexes  were  singing  and  dancing, 
when  the  sailor  said  to  his  brethren  that  he  experienced 
it  to  be  his  duty  to  go  into  the  dance  house  and  warn 
them  to  repent  of  their  sins ;  when  his  brethren  signi- 
fied to  him  that  he  would  endanger  his  life  by  such  a 
rash  act,  when  he  answered  them  that  the  loss  of  life 
would  be  nothing  in  the  scale  of  his  (.uty  to  the  cause 
of  his  Lord  and  Master,  and  he  being  at  that  time  so  full 
of  zeal  as  he  thought  to  promote  the  honour  and  glory 
of  God  his  Saviour,  so  that  if  a  sword  had  been  pre- 
sented at  his  breast  at  that  time,  it  would  not  have 
silenced  his  tongue  from  reproving  open  sin  in  any  per- 
son ;  for  the  justification  of  his  person  and  the  pardon 
of  his  sins  was  so  clear  in  those  days,  that  he  was  desirous 
of  wearing  a  martyr's  crown  in  order  to  leave  this  world 
of  sin  and  unbelief,  and  go  to  a  dispensation  of  holiness 
and  glory.  So  he  Went  into  the  dance  house  and  opened 
the  artillery  of  the  Bible  upon  them,  the  man  stopped 
his  fiddle  and  the  rest  their  dancing,  and  looked  amazed 
at  each  other  ;  and  after  he  had  warned  them  to  flee 
the  wrath  to  come,  he  left  them  to  reflect  on  what  they 


128 

had  heard :  when  they  all  left  the  house  and  there  was 
no  more  dancing  that  night.  After  this  daring  experi- 
ment in  the  case  of  the  dance  house,  he  went  on  exhort- 
ing and  warning  his  fellow  sinners  to  escape  the  dam- 
nation of  hell :  during  all  the  spring  of  1792,  and  until 
about  the  first  of  June,  there  was  nothing  worthy  of 
special  notice  transpired.  And  now  our  sea-faring 
brother  will  kindly  indulge  us  to  close  this  letter,  and 
when  the  wind  of  the  holy  spirit  bloweth  whei  e  it  list- 
eth,  and  we  hear  the  sound  thereof  from  the  gospel 
heavens,  and  it  filleth  the  sails  of  the  ship  Perseverance, 
we  will  write  to  you  again  something  more  of  what  be- 
fel  him  during  his  voyage  in  search  of  the  immortality 
of  the  human  soul. 

Oxesimus. 
To  Elder  Joseph  Mavlin. 

Philadelphia,  May  20th,  1839. 


129 


LETTER   XV. 


Dear  Sir : 

Our  last  scratch  of  the  goose  quill  left  the  sailor  a 
zealous  reprover  of  the  open  sins  of  the  age,  after  this 
in  June,  1792,  there  was  a  meeting  in  Kensington  next 
door  to  Mr.  George  Eyre,  master  shipwright,  the  place 
was  filled  to  overflowing;  and  after  waiting  for  some 
time,  and  the  expected  minister  not  coming,  the  spirit 
of  the  Lord  moved  him  to  go  forward  :  and  after  sing- 
ing and  praying,  he  took  out  his  small  Bible  and  when 
he  had  opened  it,  the  words  which  first  elicited  his  at- 
tention were  these  :  "Go  to  the  ant  thou  sluggard;  con- 
sider her  ways  and  be  wise.  Which  having  no  guide, 
overseer  or  ruler,  provideth  her  meat  in  the  summer, 
and  gathereth  her  food  in  the  harvest ;"  Proverbs  vi. 
6-7-8.  This  being  the  first  time  he  had  ever  preach- 
ed from  a  text  of  scripture,  and  had  no  idea  of  opening 
his  mouth  in  the  meeting,  and  of  course  had  not  pre- 
meditated a  single  thought  on  the  subject  of  the  text, 
or  in  any  way  whatever  connected  or  arranged  his 
ideas  on  this  portion  of  holy  writ,  yet  such  was  the 
liberty  of  soul  which  the  Lord  gave  him  on  that  occa- 
sion, that  it  solemnly  arrested  the  attention  of  all  pre- 
sent. Through  the  week  there  were  many  observations 
made  by  them  who  heard  the  sailor's  first  sermon,  while 
others  were  wondering  who  taught  him  how  to  preach, 
and  like  the  Jews  rz  our  Lord's  case,  some  of  them  mar- 
velled, saying — how  knoweth  this  sailor  letters  never 
having  learnt  them.  From  this  time  forth  he  gave 
himself  up  to  prayer,  fasting,  reading  and  expounding 
the  scriptures  to  the  people  in  his  own  anti-theological 
manner  of  warning  his  fellow  sinners  to  flee  the  wrath 
to  come,  both  in  the  city  and  in  the  streets  thereof  and 
on  the  commons.  And  also  in  private  houses  testifying 
both  to  deists,  atheists,  and  at  the  same  time  to  all 
other  sinners  repentance  towards  God,  and  faith  towards 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.    Thus  this  young  sailor  went  on 


130 

as  we  have  already  observed,  in  his  rough  and  unculti- 
vated manner  of  calling  sinners  to  repentance,  and  being 
at  the  same  time  most  grossly  ignorant  of  all  the  meta- 
physical investigations,  and  speculative  refinements  of 
the  abstract  doctrines  of  the  theological  schools,  and  at 
the  same  time  equally  as  full  of  stolidity  respecting  the 
polemical  and  didactical  divinity  of  the  day,  neither  at 
that  time  was  he  able  to  comprehend  the  learned  dispu- 
tations of  the  wise  and  renowned  doctors  of  the  outward 
christian  theology  respecting  the  hypostatical  ingredi- 
ents and  eternal  elements  that  constitute  the  distinct 
natures  of  the  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost:  so  that  he 
was  not  able  to  understand  the  great  arcanum  of  the 
fashionable  and  refined  theology  of  our  time,  together 
with  the  foolish  and  unprofitable  disputations  about  the 
other  abstract  doctrines  of  the  christian  theology,  and 
the  various  discrepancies  in  their  views  of  the  same  ; 
which  has  so  most  shamefully  distracted  the  outward 
christian  world  :  to  wit,  whether  the  expiatory  sacrifice 
of  the  Son  of  God,  was — or  was  not — available  for  the 
whole,  or  only  a  small  part  of  mankind.  Therefore  we 
humbly  ask  the  profound  sons  of  the  christian  theology, 
gentlemen  is  it  not  high  time  that  we  cease  to  perplex 
the  sons  and  daughters  of  Adam  with  such  foreign  ideas: 
that  is,  whether  the  atonement  of  Christ  had  in  its  ca- 
pacity, height  and  depth,  or  length  or  breadth  enough 
to  pardon  the  sins  of  the  whole  world  of  mankind  ;  or, 
only  a  very  small  part  of  them.  Therefore  we  conclude 
that  your  speculations  are  far  beyond  the  reach  of 
our  solution  as  well  as  the  Rabbi  in  Israel,  so  that  the 
most  profound  doctors  of  the  gospel  are  not  able  to  fully 
comprehend  the  true  modes  of  their  own  existence : 
then  how  much  less  are  they  able  to  define  the  secret 
designs  of  the  supreme  being,  or  the  incomprehensible 
nature  of  the  almighty.  Gentlemen  of  the  schools  of 
the  outward  christian  theology  of  1839,  do  you  not  see 
that  the  humiliating  declaration  of  our  Lord  to  Nico- 
demus  the  ruler  of  the  Jews,  ought  to  shame  and  con- 
found us  all :  that  is,  every  vain  and  captious  doctor  in 
the  outward  christian  world.      Hear  ye  proud  sons  of 


131 

the  letter  of  the  gospel,  what  our  Lord  says  to  Nicode- 
mas,  If  I  have  told  you  of  only  earthly  things,  and  ye 
helieve  not,  (or  rather  we  presume  our  Lord  meant  ye 
comprehend  not,  which  we  humbly  believe  is  most  cer- 
tainly deducible  from  his  reply  to  our  Lord,  how  can 
these  things  be?   when  our  Lord  answers  him,)  how 
shall  ye  believe,  if  I  tell  ye  of  heavenly  things.     We 
think  we  hear  the  voice  of  the  divine  majesty  as  the 
sound  of  many  waters,  which  is  so  solemnly  contained. 
in  the  book  of  Job :  gentlemen  gird  up  your  loins  like 
nen  of  wisdom,  for  I  would  demand  of  you,  and  answer 
thou  me ;  where  was  thou  when  I  laid  the  foundation  of 
the  earth?    declare  if  thou  hast  understanding,  when 
the  morning  stars  sang  together  and  all  the  celestial 
sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy.    And  again,  have  the  gates 
of  death  been  opened  unto  thee?  or  hast  thou  seen  the 
doors  of  the  shadow  of  death,  or  knowest  thou  the  ordi- 
nances of  heaven?  or  canst  thou  with  all  thy  vain  philo- 
sophical pride,  set  the  dominion  thereof  in  the  earth? 
if  thou  can'st  not  answer  these  plain  and  simple  interro- 
gatories which  entirely  relate  to  our  condition  and  cir- 
cumstances in  this  world,  then  we  humbly  ask  is  it  not 
high  time  for  the  honour  and  glory  of  God  and  the  gos- 
pel of  his  Son,  to  lay  aside  our  speculative  folly,  so 
that  instead  of  our  perplexing  the  minds  of  our  fellow 
men  with  foreign  and  abstract  ideas ;    to  wit,  whether 
the  almighty  did  or  did  not,  in  what  in  creeds  is  called 
his  unchangeable  council,  calmly  and   deliberately  set 
apart  from  eternity  some  of  the  sons  and  daughters  of 
Adam  to  everlasting  felicity,  and  the  wretched  and  mis- 
erable balance  to  eteral  misery  and  woe.     Therefore 
we  are  led  to  humbly  draw  this  simple  inference  from 
the  foregoing  reflections  on  the  general  character  of  the 
theoretical  theology  of  the  times  in  which  we  live,  and 
are  led  to  pray  the  great  head  of  the  church  to  send  a 
small  breeze  from  the  holy  spirit,  which  the  Lord  says 
bloweth  where   it  listeth,  in  order  to  blow  away  this 
speculative    chaff  to    the    moles    that   live   under  the 
ground,  and  the   bats  that  fly  in  the  darkness  of  the 
night.     So  that  rational  and  intelligent  beings  might 
discard  those  unprofitable  speculations  from  the  church 


132 

of  christ  altogether :  we  shall  now  brace  the  yards  and 
trim  the  sails  of  the  ship  Perseverance,  as  we  see  under 
our  larboard  quarter  a  dark  cloud  arising  over  the  city 
of  Philadelphia :  when  the  young  sailor's  mind  began  to 
be  very  seriously  exercised  with  some  awful  forebodings 
respecting  an  affection  of  a  very  calamitous  nature  that 
was  coming  on  the  city,  so  that  when  ever  he  went  into 
the  same,  and  walked  its  streets,  a  heavy  burden  rested 
on  his  mind,  and  at  the  same  time  his  sleep  departed 
from  him.  About  this  time  a  work  entitled  "  the  age 
of  reason"  had  been  introduced  into  Philadelphia, 
which  was  received  with  much  applause  by  all  the  free- 
thinking  and  skeptical  'portion  of  its  inhabitants  ;  so 
that  it  came  to  pass,  that  after  this  wonderful  sally  of 
the  deistical  wit,  from  the  pen  of  this  modern  Goliath 
of  the  new  school  of  natural  philosophy,  and  the  con- 
doling doctrine  of  eternal  sleep,  that  the  churches  and 
meeting  houses  of  this  city  were  almost  literally  forsak- 
en, especially  by  the  male  part  of  its  citizens. 


133 


No.  I.  A  frigate  of  the  new  class  named  Thomas  Paine,  just  ar- 
rived from  the  schools  of  the  French  philosophy,  with  a  new 
and  valuable  cargo  of  books,  entitled  the  Age  of  Reason. 

No.  2.  Mr.  Paine,  with  one  of  the  most  improved  French  telescopes 
at  his  philosophical  eye,  veiwing  the  stars  in  the  galaxy,  or 
what  is  called  by  the  common  people  the  milky  way. 

No.  3.  Captain  Volney  hailing  the  ship  Perseverance. 

No.  4.  Captain  Onesimus  answering  the  captain,  that  he  is  bound 
on  a  voyage  of  discovery  in  search  of  the  immortality  of  the 
human  soul :  when  captain  Volney  the  French  commander  of 
the  frigate,  with  his  national  politeness  of  French  manners,  ad- 
vises captain  Onesimus  to  give  up  his  voyage,  and  follow  his 
new  frigate  to  the  pleasant  land  of  eternal  sleep. 


Soon  after  the  arrival  of  this  marvellous  production 
from  the  pen  of  this  new  apostle  of  deism,  the  young 
sailor  was  accosted  by  several  of  the  freethinking  gen- 
tlemen of  the  city,  who  were  candid  enough  to  acknow- 
ledge that  they  did  not  possess  sufficient  prowess  or 
philosophical  gallantry  of  mind,  to  write  the  marvellous 
volume  themselves :  and  others  would  say  that  this 
voluminous  production  of  the  profound  wisdom  of  the 
age  of  natural  philosophy  would  soon  banish  the  gospel 
from  the  earth.     When  some  of  the  deistical  gentlemen 

N 


134 

would  with  a  sneer  of  atheistical  risibility,  ask  him  where 
his  Christ  the  son  of  Joseph  was,  or  what  he  was  about 
that  he  did  not  come  and  present  himself  to  the  world 
as  the  hero  of  his  church,  and  arrange  his  gospel  artil- 
lery against  this  new  armament  which  Mr.  Paine  and 
the  French  philosophy  had  sent  out  on  the  gospel  seas, 
with  the  most  positive  orders  to  kill,  burn,  destroy  and 
sink  the  whole  of  the  gospel  armament  in  whatsoever 
seas  or  latitudes  they  were  to  be  found.  By  this  time 
many  of  the  freethinking  gentlemen  of  the  city  began 
to  know  this  young  sailor  in  consequence  of  his  openly 
reproving  them  for  their  bad  language,  and  other  open 
sins,  so  that  they  would  frequently  ask  him  where  his 
Christ,  the  Devil,  the  woman  and  the  apple-tree,  were 
located  :  since  Mr.  Paine  had  so  clearly  demonstrated 
it  to  be  altogether  a  theological  farce.  His  answer  to 
them  in  general  was,  that  his  God  would  give  them  in 
due  season  a  most  clear  and  satisfactory  answer :  and  it 
is  our  special  duty  to  remark  what  vast  numbers  of  the 
inhabitants  of  this  city  of  brotherly  love — as  it  has  been 
by  some  denominated — embraced  this  new  doctrine  of 
eternal  sleep  after  death.  But  it  is  time  to  proceed 
with  captain  Oncsimus  and  his  ship  Perseverance  ; 
through  the  summer  of  1792,  his  mind  became  more 
oppressed  than  ever  with  a  sense  of  some  great  affliction 
that  within  the  short  space  of  a  year,  would  most  cer- 
tainly overtake  the  city  ;  after  ihis  about  the  last  of 
June  1792,  the  burden  of  the  Lord  on  his  mind  became 
so  intensely  great,  that  he  lost  his  appetite  for  animal 
food  altogether,  and  at  the  same  time  all  the  physical 
desires  of  his  nature  had  subsided,  so  that  he  had  neither 
power  nor  predilection  to  indulge  in  any  physical  en- 
joyment whatever,  save  that  which  was  barely  necessary 
to  sustain  his  existence. 

And  it  being  the  season  of  the  methodist  conference 
in  Philadelphia,  when  on  the  next  Lord's  day  between 
the  fore  and  afternoon  services,  so  that  in  consequence 
of  the  distress  and  burden  of  his  mind,  which  began 
every  day  to  greatly  increase,  when  he  thought  to  him- 
self that  he  would  call  on  an  elderly  and  venerable 
minister,  and  ask  his  counsel  by  stating  the  deep  exer- 


135 

cise  of  his  mind  unto  him  in  christian  confidence. 
When  he  went  and  knocked  at  his  door,  and  asked  for 
elder  Dickens,  who  came  and  presented  himself  to  the 
distressed  and  burdened  sailor  at  the  door :  when  he 
desired  a  private  interview  with  this  aged  minister, 
which  was  granted  by  the  Reverend  gentleman,  who 
kindly  conducted  him  into  a  small  parlour,  where  the 
young  sailor  opened  the  burden  of  his  mind  to  this  ven- 
erable father  as  he  thought  in  God's  spiritual  Israel': 
and  humbly  expecting  that  he  would  give  him  some 
counsel  suitable  to  his  singular  case  and  deep  exercise 
of  mind,  respecting  the  affliction  coming  on  the  city. 
But  the  aged  brother  made  no  reply  to  his  case,  but 
desired  him  to  accompany  him  into  a  large  back  parlour, 
in  which  there  was  a  number  of  the  ministers  of  the  me- 
thodist  conference,  when  Mr.  Dickens  spread  before 
this  conclave  of  ministers  his  confidential  communica- 
tion, no  doubt  remembering  the  sententious  remarks  of 
one  of  the  wisest  of  the  Hebrew  sages,  that  in  the  midst 
of  counselors  there  is  wisdom  and  safety :  when  the 
sailor  stood  in  the  midst  of  the  ministers  almost  over- 
whelmed with  fear  and  astonishment  at  the  want  of  that 
christian  confidence  which  Onesimus  had  to  that  hour 
always  placed  in  the  methodist  clergy,  whom  he  view- 
ed till  then  to  be  the  most  holy  persons  in  the  christian 
world.  After  Mr.  Dickens  had  laid  open  to  these 
ministers,  the  distress  and  exercise  of  the  young  sailor's 
mind  to  all  present ;  each  one  began  by  way  of  condol- 
ence to  give  him  their  kind  and  christian  counsel :  the 
Rev.  Jesse  Lee  told  him  of  a  very  singular  dream  which 
he  had  one  night  as  he  was  sleeping  with  his  lady ;  to 
wit,  that  the  Devil  came  and  took  away  the  pillow  from 
under  their  heads  ;  and  when  they  awoke  to  their  great 
astonishment  behold  it  was  only  a  dream.  Another 
minister  by  the  name  of  Mr.  Askins,  acted  in  his  case 
as  his  skilful  physician,  and  highly  recommended  to  him 
a  strong  decoction  made  from  the  bark  of  the  sassafras 
tree,  and  for  the  sailor  to  drink  the  same  several  times 
through  the  day,  so  that  he  entertained  not  the  least 
shadow  of  a  doubt  but  all  his  burden  of  mind  would 


136 

soon  spread  its  wings  and  depart  from  him.  And 
several  of  the  other  ministers  present,  displayed  their, 
profound  wisdom  in  pouring  forth  a  volley  of  their 
risible  artillery  on  the  head  of  this  poor  ignorant  voung 
sailor,  and  his  forebodings  of  a  calamity  over  the  city 
of  Philadelphia,  which  is  set  forth  in  the  following 
plate. 


137 


No.  1.  A  Reverend  gentleman  who  kindly  by  way  of  christian  con- 
dolence informs  this  burned  young  sailor  of  a  singular  dream 
he  had  one  night  while  sleeping  with  his  lady  :  To  wit,  that 
Satan  came  and  took  away  the  pillow  from  under  their  heads, 
and  went  off  with  the  same,  and  when  they  awoke,  behold  it 
was  a  dream. 

No.  2.  The  young  sailor  standing  in  the  midst  of  a  holy  conclave 
of  Reverend  gentlemen,  in  the  summer  of  1792. 

\'o.  3.  A  Reverend  gentleman  who  without  money  or  price  acts  as 
his  kind  physician,  when  he  directs  him  to  make  a  speedy  ap- 
plication of  the  healing  balm  or  bark  of  the  sassafras  tree,  in 
order  to  dipsel  the  burden  from  his  mind. 

No.  4.  The  rest  of  the  holy  clergy  who  were  present  on  this  dolor- 
ous occasion,  smiling  at  the  young  sailor  and  his  judgments  of 
heaven  coming  on  the  city  of  Philadelphia. 


And  this  burdened  and  distressed  young  lad  stood  in 
the  midst  of  the  ministers  speechless,  and  almost  over- 
whelmed with  astonishment ;  and  at  the  same  time  could 
scarcely  believe  his  own  audibility,  that  it  were  possible 
that  these  ministers  that  he  once  imagined  were  so  holy 
that  he  wTas  afraid  to  speak  unto  them,  under  such  a 
deep  sense  of  his  own  sinfulness  and  personal  unworthi- 
ness  did  he  labour  at  that  time.  When  he  further 
thought  to  himself,  can  it  be  possible  that  these  men  of 

N2 


138 

God  can  tantalize  and  make  sport  of  the  awful  distress 
of  my  soul :  when  he  was  led  to  sigh  and  groan  in  spirit, 
and  wished  himself  out  of  their  presence,  and  as  soon 
as  they  ended  all  their  counsel  which  related  to  his  case 
he  left  the  house,  and  when  he  got  into  the  street  he 
lifted  up  his  heart  to  God,  and  thanked  him  that  he  had 
made  his  escape  from  the  midst  of  such  miserable  theo- 
logical comforters  as  they  were.  When  like  the  bar- 
barians in  the  apostle  Paul's  case,  he  was  led  to  change 
his  mind,  and  thought  they  acted  more  like  Satan  to- 
wards him  than  holy  men  of  God ;  and  he  never  asked 
either  their  counsel  or  advice  to  this  day,  1839.  After 
this  interview  with  the  clergy  of  the  methodist  order, 
for  a  few  days  his  mind  was  much  cast  down  at  their 
treatment  towards  him,  so  that  several  of  the  elderly 
members  of  the  society  of  the  methodist  church  viewed 
their  conduct  in  his  case  as  entirely  anti-christian  and 
unbecoming  ministers  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 
And  it  came  to  pass  after  this  interview  with  the  clergy, 
that  the  burden  of  his  mind  became  more  heavy  than 
ever,  respecting  the  calamity  he  both  felt  and  saw  was 
suspended  over  the  city,  when  he  warned  every  person 
he  met  or  conversed  with  that  he  was  sure  the  almighty 
would  shortly  send  some  heavy  judgment  on  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  city  for  their  sins  and  unbelief.  When  the 
people  said  that  Onesimus  would  soon  lose  his  senses  if 
he  went  on  much  longer  with  his  awful  forebodings 
about  the  judgments  of  heaven  coming  on  Philadelphia. 
In  the  autumn  of  1792,  the  burden  of  his  mind  greatly 
increased,  so  that  about  the  last  of  October  as  he  went 
into  the  city,  he  could  scarcely  refrain  from  crying  out 
as  he  walked  the  streets  of  the  same,  woe,  unto  the  in- 
habitants of  this  place.  And  here  lest  we  should  wear 
out  the  locker  of  our  shipmate's  patience,  we  will  close 
our  log-book,  and  if  the  wind  and  clouds  of  an  awful 
providence  should  increase  in  their  alarming  aspect, 
we  will  write  to  you  again  on  this  sorrowful  subject. 

Onesimus. 
To  Elder  Joseph  Maylin. 

Philadelphia,  October  30th,  1792. 


139 


LETTER  XVI. 


Dear  Sir: 

Our  last  scroll  from  the  log-book  of  the  ship  Perse- 
verance, left  our  young  shipmate  with  an  onerous  bur- 
den on  his  mind  respecting  the  forebodings  of  a  singu- 
lar affliction  he  saw  was  coming  on  the  city,  and  he  was 
at  the  same  time  grieved  in  spirit  at  the  incredulous  re- 
ception of  his  prophecy,  by  the  clergy  of  that  day. 
But  still  his  Lord  was  with  him  and  finally  brought  him 
from  under  their  medical  prescription  of  the  Devil,  who 
so  very  unceremoniously  ran  off  with  the  pillow  from 
under  the  Rev.  gentleman  and  his  consort's  head  ;  and 
the  Lord  in  his  wise  providence  removed  from  him  the 
necessity  of  using  the  universal  panacea  of  the  bark  of 
the  sassafras  tree,  so  kindly  prescribed  by  another  of 
the  Rev.  gentleman,  in  order  to  displace  from  Onesi- 
mus?  mind  the  distress  and  calamity  that  he  said  was 
coming  on  the  city.  Still  through  the  autumn  of  1792, 
his  mind  had  no  rest  day  nor  night,  in  consequence  of 
the  burden  that  hourly  rested  on  his  spirit,  so  that 
during  the  fall  he  lived  on  bread  and  other  light  arti- 
cles of  vegetable  sustenance,  so  that  all  his  physical  pro- 
pensities were  at  that  season  reduced  to  a  state  of  entire 
deadness.  And  with  Paul  he  could  truly  say,  I  am 
crucified  with  Christ;  nevertheless  I  live,  yet  not  I,  but 
Christ  liveth  in  me ;  and  the  life  which  I  now  live  in 
the  flesh,  is  by  faith  in  the  Son  of  God ;  who  loved  me 
and  gave  himself  for  me.  After  this  his  distress  became 
so  very  intense,  that  he  had  to  give  up  all  the  secular 
concerns  of  this  life  :  and  about  the  first  of  December, 
1792,  as  he  rose  always  before  the  dawning  of  the  day, 
in  order  to  embrace  an  opportunity  to  spend  an  hour 
in  secret  prayer  at  the  throne  of  grace,  in  an  upper 
loft:  which  he  had  for  about  a  year  used  for  the  express 
purpose  of  reading  his  Bible,  meditation  and  prayer  ; 
and  as  his  manner  was  when  he  came  down  out  of  the 
loft;  he  went  to  the  shore  of  the  river  Delaware  to  wash 


140 

himself,  and  looking  towards  the  city  he  saw  about  ten 
minutes  before  the  rising  of  the  sun,  three  rows  of 
coffins  arranged  at  equal  distances  from  each  other,  from 
one  end  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia  to  the  other ;  the  said 
coffins  appeared  in  an  inclined  direction,  with  the  foot 
of  the  coffins  towards  the  tops  of  the  houses,  the  rows 
at  equal  distances  apart.  Which  singular  appearance 
or  strange  phenomena,  as  he  stood  on  the  shore  of  the 
Delaware,  and  viewed  the  army  of  coffins  for  about  five 
minutes,  when  they  all  suddenly  disappeared  just  before 
the  sun  rose  on  the  city.  This  strange  sign  of  the 
coffins  over  the  city,  caused  him  to  be  very  serious  and 
solemn  all  that  day  and  night,  in  order  to  ascertain 
what  this  strange  phenomena  of  the  coffins  was  intended 
to  signify,  but  he  communicated  the  vision  to  no  person 
that  day.  When  he  rose  early  the  next  morning  and 
went  as  before  observed  to  secret  prayer,  and  came 
down  from  his  upper  loft,  and  after  washing  himself  at 
the  river,  he  looked  towards  the  city  and  saw  the  three 
armies  of  coffins  the  second  time  arranged  in  three  rows 
exactly  as  he  saw  them  the  morning  before :  when  his 
mind  became  more  distressed  than  ever,  but  he  kept  the 
vision  to  himself  the  second  day  also,  but  was  much 
troubled  in  his  spirit,  which  is  set  forth  in  the  following 
plate. 


141 


No.  1.  Is  a  view  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  with  three  rows  of 
coffins  arranged  over  the  same,  exactly  as  the  young  sailor  saw 
them  the  first  morning,  just  before  the  rising  of  the  sun  in  De- 
cember, 1792. 

No.  2.  The  young  sailor  standing  on  the  bank  of  the  Delaware, 
looking  at  the  awful  appearance  of  the  coffins  over  the  city, 
with  his  hands  raised  towards  heaven  in  order  to  ascertain  if 
possible  what  was  coming  on  the  city,  this  being  the  second 
time  which  he  saw  the  vision. 


He  rose  as  usual  on  the  morning  of  the  third  day. 
and  after  solemn  prayer  in  secret  for  the  Lord  to  sup- 
port him  through  the  same,  and  if  it  were  his  sovereign 
pleasure,  to  graciously  reveal  to  him  what  the  signs  of 
the  coffins  over  the  city  were  designed  to  signify.  He 
came  down  out  of  the  loft  and  went  as  before  observed 
to  the  river  Delaware  to  wash,  and  again  looking  to- 
wards the  city,  when  he  saw  the  three  armies  of  coffins 
over  the  same,  this  being  the  third  and  last  time  that 
he  saw  the  coffins  over  the  city  of  Philadelphia.  When 
he  called  his  father  and  family  to  come  out  of  the  house 
to  the  shore  of  the  river,  and  look  at  the  same.  When 
they  all  came  out  with  a  number  of  his  father's  work- 
men to  look  at  his  coffins  over  the  city ;  but  it  was  not 


142 

given  to  them  see  the  same.  Some  of  the  people  derid- 
ed him,  and  others  laughed  him  to  scorn,  when  he 
kneeled  on  the  shore  of  the  river,  and  prayed  that  God 
might  have  mercy  on  them  and  convert  their  souls. 
His  father  and  family  with  many  others,  began  to  con- 
clude that  in  consequence  of  his  thinking  so  much  on 
things  relating  to  another  and  better  world,  he  was  fast 
approximating  into  a  state  of  insanity.  The  following 
plate  will  show  the  reader  the  signs  of  the  coffins  as  seen 
the  third  and  last  time,  that  the  young  man  saw  them 
over  the  city  of  Philadelphia  in  December,  1792. 


143 


No.  1.  The  vision  of  the  coffin?  as  seen  the  third  successive  morn- 
ing over  the  city  of  Philadelphia  hy  Onesimus,  and  his  calling 
his  father  and  family  out  of  the  house  to  see  the  same. 

No.  2.  The  workmen  deriding  and  laughing  at  him,  when  he  falls 
on  his  knees  by  the  river  and  prays  to  God  to  have  mercy  upon 


them. 


And  it  came  to  pass,  that  on  the  same  day,  that  he 
saw  the  coffins  for  the  last  time  over  the  city  of  Phila- 
delphia, in  December  1892,  that  he  went  into  the  city 
on  the  evening  of  the  same,  to  a  place  of  worship  in 
south  Second  Street,  called  in  those  days  Ebenezer. 
The  building  is  yet  standing  it  being  about  three  miles 
from  his  father's  house  ;  that  is,  the  same  site  of  ground 
on  which  Dr.  Dyott  had  his  extensive  glass  manufacto- 
ry, it  being  the  very  site  on  which  the  young  man  stood 
when  he  saw  the  signs  of  the  coffins  for  three  successive 
mornings  in  broad  daylight.  When  the  voung  man 
went  to  the  aforesaid  meeting  with  a  full  determination 
to  warn  the  minister  and  his  congregation  of  the  ap- 
proaching calamity  that  he  saw  was  coming  on  the  city. 
And  when  he  entered  the  meeting,  he  saw  the  Rev. 
John  Mc  Claskey  in  the  pulpit,  who   preached   that 


144 

evening ;  and  when  he  had  gone  through  the  services 
of  the  evening,  he  rose  and  stepped  upon  one  of  the 
seats,  and  with  a  loud  voice  declared  to  the  minister  and 
his  congregation,  that  before  one  year  should  have  pas- 
sed over  this  city,  God  would  most  certainly  send  a  very 
great  distress  and  affliction  on  its  inhabitants,  such  as  it 
never  had  experienced  since  its  foundation  :  and  then 
called  on  all   present  to  prepare  to  meet  their  God  ; 
when  he  set  down  and  said  no  more.     When  the  Rev. 
gentleman  and  the  whole  congregation  rose  on  their 
feet,  and  the  minister  desired  his  congregation  not  to 
be   agitated  or  alarmed  at  what   had  fallen  from   the 
young  brother's  tongue,  as  he  certainly  must  be  wrong 
or  disordered  in  his  mind  :   to  which  Onesimus  in  the 
fear  of  God  made  no  reply,  but  rose  and  left  the  meet- 
ing and  went  home  to  his  father's  house,  about  three 
miles  from  the  meeting,  under  a  full  conviction  of  having 
done  his  duty  that  evening  in  the  sight  of  God,     But 
here  it  is  proper  to  remark,  that  notwithstanding  the 
Rev.  gentleman  made  so  light  of  the  young  brother's 
prophecy  that  evening,  yet  his  declaration  so  alarmed 
his  congregation,  so  that  the  next  day  the  Rev.  John 
Mc  Claskey,  and  two  other  methodist  ministers  by  the 
names  of  Willis  and  Green,  came  out  of  the  city  to  his 
father's  house,  inquiring  for  the  young  brother  who  was 
at   their  meeting  last  evening.     When  his  father  led 
them  into  a  large  loft,  over  which  there  was  an  upper 
loft  as  we  have  already  observed,  into  which  the  young 
brother  went  to  read,  meditate  and  pray  :   when  his 
father  prayed  him   to  come  down  out  of  his  homely 
study,  who  was  at  the  same  time  on  his  knees  at  prayer 
with  his  Bible  spread  open  before  him ;  but  in  obedience 
to  his  request  he  came  down  into  the  under  loft,  when 
his  father  introduced  him  to  the  three  before  named 
gentlemen,  and  after  the  usual  etiquette  respecting  his 
health  and  welfare,  they  observed  to   him   that    they 
thought  he  did  wrong  in  reading  the  Bible  so  much, 
and  his  retiring  so  much  in  his  study  at  prayer,  and  that 
he  ought  to  associate  himself  more  with  the  young  mem- 
bers of  the  society,  and  no  doubt  those  alarming  signs 
which  were  preying  on  his  mind  would  soon  depart 


145 

from  him,  and  at  the  same  time  his  father  stood  behind 
him  weeping  at  the  supposed  insanity  of  his  son.  And 
the  three  Reverend  gentlemen  stood  before  him,  who 
further  observed  to  him,  our  visit  to  you  this  morning 
is  to  forbid  you  acting  again  in  any  of  our  meetings — of 
either  prayer  or  preaching — as  you  did  the  last  even- 
ing, by  making  such  an  awful  declaration  as  you  made 
in  our  church  last  night  about  the  judgment  of  heaven 
coming  on  the  people  of  Philadelphia.  When  the 
young  brother  was  for  a  moment  almost  ready  to  sink 
down  on  the  floor  in  their  presence,  but  the  Lord  was 
still  with  him,  and  in  a  moment  of  time  the  large  room 
in  which  Onesimus,  his  father  and  the  three  Reverend 
gentlemen  were  standing  was  filled  with  coffins,  and  in 
each  lay  a  white  winding  sheet :  these  things  he  saw 
with  his  natural  vision  ;  and  the  walnut  colour  of  the 
coffins  with  the  same  clearness  aud  identity  as  he  saw 
his  father  and  the  three  Reverend  gentlemen  that  were 
before  him.  When  the  young  brother  cried  out  to 
them,  do  you  not  see  all  around  you  the  coffins  and  the 
winding  sheets  lying  in  them,  all  over  the  room?  when 
the  Reverend  gentlemen  assured  him  that  there  was 
no  such  signs  to  be  seen,  and  that  he  must  certainly  be 
deceived  by  the  Devil  and  his  own  imagination,  and  re- 
peating their  ministerial  charge  to  the  poor  sailor  not 
to  act  again  as  he  had  done  the  evening  before,  or  else 
they  "should  be  under  the  necessity  of  enforcing  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  church  against  him.  When  the  Reverend 
gentlemen  withdrew  from  the  young  brother,  and  he 
saw  the  coffins  and  winding  sheets  no  more  to  this  day, 
May  20th,  1839.  This  interview  with  the  three  Rev. 
gentlemen  in  the  presence  of  his  father,  took  place  in 
December  1792,  in  the  forenoon  of  the  day  between  the 
hours  of  ten  and  twelve  o'clock ;  in  an  old  building  that 
is  to  this  day  standing  within  the  enclosure  of  the  Jate 
Dr.  Dyott's  glass  works  on  the  river  Delaware,  about 
two  miles  from  Market  or  High  street,  Philadelphia. 

O   ' 


146 


This  plate  shows  the  exact  position  of  the  young 
sailor,  his  father  and  the  three  Reverend  gentlemen, 
with  the  coffins  that  contained  the  white  winding  sheets 
in  each  of  them  : 


No.  1.  The  building  in  which  the  signs  of  the  coffins  were  seen 
in  December,  1702  ;  and  is  yet  standing  within  the  enclosure 
of  Dr.  Dyott's  glass  establishment,  about  two  miles  from  the 
city  of  Philadelphia,  on  the  river  Delaware. 

No.  2.  Onesimus'  father  stands  behind  him  shedding  tears,  with  a 
handkerchief  to  his  face,  in  consequence  of  the  supposed  insani- 
ty of  his  son. 

No.  3.  The  young  sailor  showing  the  three  clergymen  the  coffins 
which  were  around  them,  and  a  winding  sheet  lying  in  each 
coffin. 

No.  4.  The  Rev.  John  Mc  Claskey  warning  the  sailor  never  to  dare 
to  alarm  his  church  and  congregation  with  the  signs  of  his 
coffins  and  winding  sheets  any  more. 

No.  5.  The  ship  Perseverance  after  a  long  and  stormy  voyage  ar- 
rives safe  into  the  royal  port  of  Mount  Zion,  the  city  of  the 
living  God,  with  her  colours  flying  bearing  the  sign  of  the 
Cross. 


147 

And  here  indulge  us  to  close  this  dolorous  part  of 
our  narrative,  and  for  the  present  shut  up  the  log-bojk 
of  the  ship  Perseverance,  till  we  shall  have  a  clear  sky 
and  the  wind  of  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  is  a  few  points 
abaft  the  beam ;  and  if  the  Lord  would  spare  such  a 
very  unprofitable  servant  as  Onesimus  in  this  world  a 
little  longer,  we  shall  in  that  case  inform  you  of  some- 
thing more  about  the  young  brother  and  his  prophecy ; 
and  whether  his  God  in  his  wisdom  and  providence,  did 
prove  him  to  be  a  true  or  false  prophet  in  this  case. 
Amen. 

Onesimus. 
To  Elder  Joseph  MAyLiN. 

Philadelphia,  December  31s/,  1792. 


148 


LETTER   XVII 


Dear  Sir : 

&  Our  last  scratch  of  the  goose  quill  informed  you  of 
the  several  supernatural  appearances  which  the  young 
sailor  saw  in  the  month  of  December,  1792,  and  how 
his  prophecy  was  rejected  by  the  Reverend  gentlemen 
of  the  methodist  church,  and  laughed  at  by  many  of  the 
members  of  their  society,  with  hundreds  of  the  citizens 
of  Philadelphia. 

After  this  it  came  to  pass  some  time  in  January, 
1793,  there  was  a  quarterly  meeting  to  be  held,  about 
twenty  miles  or  more  out  of  the  city.  And  as  the  Rev. 
John  Mc  Claskey  was  to  superintend  the  same  ;  when 
some  of  the  members  of  the  methodist  society  were  led 
to  conclude  from  the  little  discourses  they  heard  from 
him  in  the  summer  of  1792,  and  his  exhortations  at 
prayer  meetings — with  his  reproving  of  sin  both  pub- 
licly and  privately — that  perhaps  his  distress  of  mind 
might  in  a  great  measure  arise  in  consequence  of  his 
disobedience  to  the  heavenly  call,  in  his  not  giving  him- 
self up  fully  to  the  ministry  of  the  word.  When  some 
of  his  friends  prevailed  on  the  Reverend  gentlemen  of 
the  methodist  order  to  take  the  young  lad  with  them  to 
the  quarterly  meeting,  in  order  to  give  him  a  fair  op- 
portunity to  exercise  his  gifts  at  a  distanee  from  the 
city :  when  perhaps  the  country  air  might  cause  the 
awful  spectres  of  the  coffins  to  spread  their  dolorous 
wings  and  leave  him  in  the  possession  of  a  sane  mind. 
And  it  came  to  pass  at  the  quarterly  meeting  that  when 
the  Rev.  John  Mc  Claskey  and  the  rest  of  the  ministers 
at  the  meeting,  had  all  exercised  themselves  in  preach- 
ing, when  near  the  close  of  the  same,  the  Rev.  Elder 
called  on  the  burdened  sailor  to  come  forward  and  try 
and  exercise  his  gifts  :  but  at  the  same  time  very  cau- 
tiously laid  the  sailor  under  some  special  restrictions  not 
to  say  a  single  word  about  the  visions  of  the  coffins,  and 
the  great  distress  and  other  serious  calamity  that  he  had 


149 

prophesied  was  coming  on  the  inhabitants  of  the  city. 
And  it  came  to  pass,  that  in  consequence  of  this  minis- 
terial embargo,  that  the  Lord  withheld  that  evening  the 
gracious  and  ordinary  influence  of  his  spirit  from  him, 
in  that  through  a  principle  of  the  fear  of  man  he  obeyed 
them  more  than  the  spirit  of  the  Lord.  So  that  when 
he  arose  to  address  the  people,  he  had  but  very  little 
to  say  to  them  ;  in  consequence  of  which  he  became  low 
spirited,  and  his  mind  for  the  moment  much  cast  down. 
When  the  Reverend  gentlemen  and  some  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  methodist  society  reported  when  they  re- 
turned to  the  city,  that  they  were  very  seriously  appre- 
hensive that  Onesimus  was  as  much  mistaken  in  his 
being  called  to  preach  the  gospel  as  he  was  in  his  being 
called  to  the  prophetical  office. 

And  here  indulge  us  to  conclude  our  short  scroll  and 
shut  up  the  log-book  of  the  ship  Perseverance,  and  when 
the  wind  of  the  spirit  bloweth  where  it  listeth  and  we 
hear  the  sound  thereof,  we  will  write  to  our  sea-faring 
brother  again  :  so  fare  thee  well  at  this  time,  from  on 
board  the  ship  Perseverance  bound  to  the  shores  of  the 
glorious  country  of  immortality,  in  the  humble  search 
of  the  human  soul. 

Onesimus. 

To  Elder  Joseph  Maylin. 
January  21s/,  1793. 


02 


150 


LETTER    XVIII. 

Bear  Sir: 

Our  last  lines  brought  the  ship  Perseverance  com- 
manded by  captain  Onesimus  back  to  the  city  of  Phila- 
delphia, from  his  dolorous  excursion  to  the  quarterly 
meeting ;  which  made  the  most  unfavourable  impression 
on  the  minds  of  the  methodist  people  with  respect  to 
his  preaching  and  prophesying  talents.  And  when  the 
month  of  February,  1793,  came  in,  there  was  at  that 
time  in  this  city,  much  talk  and  theological  speculation 
respecting  this  poor  deluded  sailor,  and  his  imaginary 
army  of  coffins.  When  some  of  the  Reverend  gentle- 
men demanded  of  the  young  brother,  the  exact  character 
and  nature  of  the  judgment  which  is  to  kill  us  all. 
When  his  anwser  to  them  was — that  all  that  was  reveal- 
ed to  him  respecting  either  the  nature  or  character  of 
the  calamity  which  the  coffins  and  winding  sheets  were 
designed  to  signify  had  not  been  distinctly  revealed  to 
him  :  therefore,  that  all  that  he  could  inform  them  in 
the  case,  was  that  the  vision  was  true,  and  the  full  in- 
terpretation thereof,  God  shall  give  you  before  this 
present  year  of  1793  shall  pass  over  your  heads.  After 
this  the  ministers  let  him  alone,  and  said  no  more  to  him 
on  the  subject :  But  like  the  Jews  in  Paul's  case  at 
Rome,  they  had  great  reasoning  among  themselves, 
about  his  prophecy ;  and  said  one  to  another  it  was  mar- 
vellously strange  indeed,  that  the  Lord  should  pass  by 
all  the  elderly  and  venerable  ministers  of  our  society, 
and  reveal  this  thing  to  a  young  person  who  has  but 
lately  joined  our  church:  but  notwitstanding  as  it  was 
the  case  with  Paul  [at  Athens,  a  sister  named  Wilmore 
and  others  with  her  of  the  pious  members  of  the  metho- 
dist society,  whose  names  are  not  distinctly  recollected 
at  this  length  of  time,  who  were  more  or  less  apprehen- 
sive that  perhaps  there  might  be  some  small  degree  of 
truth  in   his  prophesy.      When   sister  Wilmore   and 


151 

others  put  the  question  very  close  to  him  :  to  wit* 
whether  the  grand  enemy  of  his  soul  was  not  decieving 
him  ?  When  his  answer  to  them  was  that  as  sure  as 
God  existed,  and  as  he  had  a  soul  to  be  saved,  this 
calamity  which'the  coffins  and  winding  sheets  are  intend- 
ed to  signify  shall  come  to  pass.  This  year  (1793) 
during  the  months  of  January,  February  and  March, 
nothing  of  a  special  character  transpired.  The  month 
of  April  came  in,  when  a  number  of  both  saints  and 
open  sinners  would  ask  him  when  his  army  of  coffins 
were  coming  to  drive  out  the  inhabitants  from  the  city : 
he  prayed  them  to  exercise  their  patience,  and  God 
would  give  them  the  deleterious  opportunity  of  viewing 
his  army  of  coffins  marching  through  your  city. 

But  notwithstanding  all  the  sarcastical  jeers  of  the 
Reverend  gentlemen  of  1793,  the   young  sailor  most 
firmly  believed   the   visions  of  the  coffins  were  from 
heaven,  and  at  the  same  time  he  was  as  firmly  persuad- 
ed in  his  own  mind,  that  what  he  saw  over  the  city  in 
December,  1792,  would  be  most  certainly  fulfilled  in 
1793.     After  this  he  still  continued  his  daily  ambula- 
tions either  in  the  city,  or  else  a  few  miles  in  the  adja- 
cent country.    And  at  the  same  time  as  before  observed, 
living  on  vegetable  diet;   and  the  burden  of  his  mind 
still  continued,  but  not  in  that  intense  and  awful  degree 
that  it  did  when  he  first  saw  the  coffins  over  the  city. 
And  he  now  became  both  by  the  Reverend  gentlemen 
and  the  citizens  of  Philadelphia,  the  entire  object  of 
the  most  uncharitable  animadversions  of  both  saints  and 
sinners,  even  as  he  walked  the  streets  of  the  city.    But 
he  still  retained  his  full  confidence  in  God,  that  he  had 
not  permitted  Satan  nor  any  other  invisible  agency  to 
deceive  him :  therefore  he  bore  all  their  insidious  reflec- 
tions with  christian  patience,  until  the  wheels  of  time 
should  become  its  own  most  infallible  expositor ;  so  that 
ike  Jonah,  he  set  down  under  the  booth  of  the  word  of 
he  Lord,  while  the  north  wind  of  reproach  was  blow- 
ig  upon  his  head,  to  wait  its  issue.     About  the  first  of 
lay,  as  the  distress  of  his  mind  became  less  intense, 
\ien  he  went  to  work  at  his  usual  avocation,  and  al- 
Lwgh  he  now  worked  at  his  lawful  calling,  yet  he  re- 


152 

mained  very  sparing  of  his  words,  like  the  ancient  Lace 
demonians  with  their  iron  money :   so  that  he  did  not 
converse  with  any  person  about  the  things  and  business 
of  this  world  any  more  than  the  necessity  of  his  calling 
did  most  imperiously  call  for  at  his  moral  acountability. 
Thus  the  month  of  May  passed  over  his  head  without 
any  other  special  occurence  that  we  can  at  this  length 
of  time  distinctly  recollect :  and  as  he  had  no  desire  or 
intention  for  many  years  of  ever  publishing  the  vision 
to  the  world  till  his  return  from  Richmond,  Virginia, 
this  winter ;  that  is,  1838.    And  as  Onesimus  had  made 
no  notes  of  this  wonderful  vision  and  its  exact  fulfilment, 
a  vast  number  of  the  minor  incidents  and  small  occur- 
rences of  the  same,  has  slipped  his  memory  :  neverthe- 
less all  the  special  occurrences  of  this  singular  vision, 
with  the  persons  and  things  of  that  day,  are  fully  and 
distinctly  remembered  with  as  great  a  degree  of  clear- 
ness and  perspicuity  as  if  they  transpired  but  yesterday. 
And  when  the  month  of  June  came  in,  he  became  more 
cheerful,  and  the  burden  was  taken  in  a  great  measure 
from  off  his  mind,  so  that  he  began  to  use  a  little  animal 
food,  and  did  more  or  less  at  times  listen  to  his  father 
reading  the  news  of  the  war,  and  the  revolution  in 
France  and  the  rest  of  Europe  :  but  he  still  continued 
to  attend  the  methodist  meetings  of  prayer  and  preach- 
ing, but  did  not  either  exhort  or  preach  himself,  but 
humbly  in  the  fear  of  God  waited  the  fulfilment  of  his 
prophesy.   During  the  month  of  June  there  was  nothing 
of  a  special  nature  transpired,  except  that  some  of  the 
over  zealous  disciples  of  Mr.  Paine,  and  as  we  have  al- 
ready observed  his  marvellous  book  entitled  the  Age  of 
Reason,  some  of  them  would  come  out  of  the  city  to  his 
father's  house,  to  have  some  sport  with  the  sailor  about  , 
his  army  of  coffins,  and  the  imbecility  of  Christ  his 
Lord  and  master  in  suffering  this  bright  and  morning 
star  of  modern  wisdom  and  philosophy,  to  clip  the  wings 
and  shade  the  glory  of  him  who  nearly  eighteen  hundred 
years  ago,  proclaimed  himself  the  morning  star  of  im- 
mortality and  the  root  and  offspring  of  David.     But  a 
he  was  mostly  apprised  of  their  coming,  he  had  selects 
about  a  hundred  passages  of  scripture  out  of  the  old  an 


153 

new  Testaments,  that  were  heavily  surcharged  with  the 
alarming  elements  of  hell-fire :  when  he  would  take  out 
his  little  book  which  he  always  carried  with  him,  and 
with  a  loud  and  terrific  voice  which  he  possessed  in 
those  days,  read  the  same  in  their  ears :  so  that  they 
seldom  would  stand  more  than  a  dozen  rounds  from  his 
brimstone  artillery,  which  generally  caused  them  to  re- 
treat and  leave  him  in  possession  of  the  field  of  battle  : 
and  go  and  tell  his  father  that  his  son  smelt  so  strong  of 
the  pole-cat  of  hell-fire,  that  they  could  not  stay  in  the 
place  with  him.  And  as  he  was  so  very  litle  acquainted 
in  those  days  either  with  logic  or  metaphysical  reason- 
ing on  the  high  subject  of  natural  philosophy,  he  thought 
the  best  way  to  cause  his  deistical  and  atheistical  ene- 
mies to  sheer  off,  was  to  send  a  few  of  the  old  torpedos 
drawn  by  an  hasty  requisition  from  the  Law,  the  Pro- 
phets and  the  Gospels,  charged  with  brimstone ;  which 
the  arsenal  of  an  sin- hating  God  and  his  vast  resources 
so  amply  possessed.  Now  it  was  by  this  short  method 
of  wafare,  that  the  sailor  caused  those  paragons  of  the 
new  philosophy  of  France  and  Mr.  Paine  to  quit  the 
sea  of  action,  and  leave  him  surrounded  by  his  small 
armament  of  coffins.  But  it  is  worthy  of  special  remark, 
that  most  of  these  laughing  gentlemen  of  the  age  of 
reason,  were  among  the  earliest  victims  of  the  yellow 
fever  of  1793.  The  month  of  July  came  in,  and  nothing 
special  or  alarming  transpired :  by  this  time  many  began 
to  entertain  strong  doubts  respecting  the  truth  of  his 
prophesy  of  a  great  calamity  which  he  so  positively  de- 
clared would  most  certainly  came  on  the  city  during 
the  year  1793.  But  in  the  language  of  the  apostle 
Peter,  he  declared  to  them  all,  that  the  Lord  is  not 
slack  concerning  his  promise  (in  this  case),  as  some  men 
count  slackness  ;  and  that  the  vision  of  the  coffins  shall 
shortly  speak  and  will  not  lie. 

The  month  of  August  came  in,  and  the  Reverend 
gentlemen  who  forbid  him  to  warn  their  congregations 
began  to  smile  at  each  other  respecting  the  sailor  and 
his  prophesy.  But  he  answered  them  in  the  language 
af  one  of  the  ancient  fathers,  to  one  of  the  proconsuls  of 
he  Roman  empire  in  the  days  of  Julian  the  emperor  of 


154 

Rome :  when  the  proconsul  with  a  sarcastic  smile  on  his 
countenance,  asked  the  christian  father  what  the  car- 
penter's son  was  about  to  suffer  such  a  storm  of  perse- 
cution to  light  on  his  followers.  When  the  elder 
answered  the  fastidious  Roman  officer — making  a  coffin 
sir,  for  your  master :  who  was  at  that  time  prosecuting 
a  war  against  the  Persians,  and  it  seems  that  he  had 
signified  to  his  friends  who  were  favourable,  of  fully  es- 
tablishing the  heathen  mythology  throughout  the  Roman 
empire,  and  of  finally  banishing  the  Galilean  disciples 
out  of  his  kingdom  by  causing  the  brilliancy  of  heathen 
philosophy  to  out-vie  the  doctrine  and  precepts  of  the 
gospel  of  the  carpenter's  son.  But  it  is  said  that  the 
Roman  emperor  received  a  deathly  wound  in  this  Per- 
sian war,  which  imperiously  constrained  the  Roman 
emperor  in  his  expiring  moments  to  exclaim  ;  thou  0, 
Galilean,  hast  in  all  things  the  most  decided  pre-emi- 
nence !  So  the  young  sailor  most  solemnly  declared  to 
those  fastidious  Reverend  gentlemen  who  forbid  him  to 
warn  their  congregations,  that  Christ  the  son  as  was 
supposed  of  Joseph  the  carpenter,  had  not  quite  forgot 
the  old  calling  of  his  supposed  father,  Joseph ;  and  would 
in  a  few  days  be  here  with  his  army  of  coflins,  therefore 
Reverend  sirs,  only  give  the  sailor  the  year  1793,  and 
his  God  shall  give  you  a  full  and  satisfactory  answer. 
After  this  the  Reverend  gentlemen  said  no  more  to 
Onesimus  on  the  subject  of  the  coffins:  concluding  wise- 
ly, as  they  thought,  that  the  army  of  the  coffins  had 
spread  their  wings  and  left  the  city,  so  that  all  fear  and 
alarm  was  over. 

The  month  of  August  came  in,  and  worldly  prosperi- 
ty, with  Deism  and  Atheism  more  or  less  spreading  its 
baneful  influence  throughout  the  United  States,  France 
and  the  rest  of  Europe.  About  this  time  Mr.  Gibbon's 
decline  and  fall  of  the  Roman  empire,  one  of  the  most 
sublime  historical  works  in  the  English  language,  for  the 
depth  of  his  excursive  knowledge,  and  the  strength  of 
his  discursive  mind  over  the  past  history  of  mankind  : 
but  notwithstanding  all  his  brilliant  talents  as  a  writer, 
yet  on  the  sublime  subject  of  immortality,  we  must  with 
the  apostle  Paul  say ;  thou  fool,  that  which  thou  sowesf 


155 

is  not  quickened  except  it  die.     So  that  notwithstand- 
ing this  gentlemen  with  all  his  acquired  and  assumed 
wisdom,  could  not  clearly  see  or  comprehend  how  that 
rationality  with  all  its  subordinate  functions  and  facul- 
ties, could  ever  retain  its  empire  of  thinking  and  rea- 
soning, when  once  dismissed  from  its  mutual  congress 
with  the  brain  ;  which  led  him  to  profess — to  believe — 
that  all  would  cease  to  exist  in  the  article  of  death. 
This   gentleman's   writings,   with    another   fascinating 
production  of  a  French  gentleman  by  the  name  of  Vol- 
ney,  and  Mr.  Paine's  wonderful  "Age  of  Reason,"  all 
arriving  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  in  the  space  of  a 
few  years  before  the  yellow  fever  of  1793,  which  almost 
caused  the  empire  or  system  of  infidelity  to  overawe 
the  christian  world,  but  more  especially  the  Philadel- 
phians  in  1793.     You  will  pardon  our  aberration  from 
the  vision  of  the  coffins,  or,  in  our  sea-faring  language, 
suffering  the  ship  Perseverance  to  fall  off  to  leeward, 
in  order  to  present  to  you  our  views  of  those  wonderful 
gentlemen  and  their  marvellous  writings :   and  now  by 
your  kind  indulgence  we  shall  close  our  log-book,  as  it 
looks  very  squally  under  our  lee  bow,  so  that  we  be- 
lieve it  is  high  time  to  reef  our  topsails  and  courses,  and 
send  down  our  top-gallant  yards  and  masts  on  deck,  and 
get  our  ship  in  readiness  to  meet  the  gale ;  if  perhaps 
it  may  please  the  almighty  to  cause  the  ship  to  outride 
the  storm.     In  that  case  we  shall  write  to  you  again, 
in  order  to  inform  you  how  the  ship  Perseverance  be- 
haves herself  in  a  heavy  sea  and  a  hard  gale  of  wind 
from  off  the  coast  of  infidelity. 

Oxesimus. 

To  Elder  Joseph  Maylix. 
August  1st,  1793. 


156 


LETTER    XVIII. 

Dear  Sir : 

In  our  last  sea  letter  we  reminded  you  that  we  were 
rather  apprehensive  a  storm  was  near  at  hand,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  squally  appearance  of  the  weather  under 
our  lee  bow,  and  that  it  were  time  for  the  ship  Perse- 
verance to  have  every  thing  on  deck  and  aloft  put  in 
the  best  seamanship  order,  so  that  she  might  outride  the 
gathering  storm :  or  in  other  words,  the  city  of  Phila- 
delphia might  prepare  to  meet  her  God,  with  the  filling 
of  those  coffins  and  winding  sheets  that  the  sailor  saw 
over  the  city  in  December,  1792. 

August  came  in,  and  all  was  in  apparent  safety,  and ' 
the  alarming  sound  of  Onesimus'  prophesy  had  almost 
ceased  to  undulate  the  moral  air,  till  the  eighth  of  August 
1793,  there  suddenly  arose  a  little  cloud  about  (in  a 
moral  sense)  the  size  of  a  man's  hand  :  viz.,  the  fishing 
boats  belonging  to  a  small  village  in  the  upper  part  of 
Kensington,  whi  ch  then  went  by  the  name  of  Fishtown, 
the  fishing  boats  belonging  to  the  same,  as  they  lay  at 
Market  st.  wharf  that  day  selling  their  fish,  the  hands 
were  suddenly  taken  ill  and  brought  home  in  their  boats 
to  the  small  village,  which  is  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
from  the  site  of  ground  where  the  sailor  stood  when  he 
saw  the  army  of  coffins  over  the  city  eight  months  be- 
fore ;  viz.,  in  December,  1792,  and  the  next  day  they 
were  all  dead  corpses.  And  in  a  few  days  the  whole 
city  was  in  a  state  of  the  utmost  consternation  in  conse- 
quence of  the  awful  work  of  death  seizing  the  inhabi- 
tants in  every  part  of  the  city,  which  struck  with  the 
most  awful  terror  the  citizens  who  were  flying  out  of 
the  same  into  the  country  in  every  direction,  as  the 
contagion  was  daily  more  or  less  spreading  throughout 
the  whole  city ;  so  that  the  alarm  became  hourly  the 
more  terrifying.  So  that  as  soon  as  one  or  more  of  a 
family  were  taken  with  the  yellow  fever,  they  were 


157 

•generally  forsaken  by  the  rest :  so  that  in  many  cases, 
the  children  forsook  their  parents,  and  the  parents  their 
children,  and  the  husbands^their  wives  and  the  wives 
their  husbands.  So  that  neither  the  ties  of  consanguini- 
ty, nor  the  bands  of  conjugal  affection,  had  strength 
to  hold  them  together:" and  what  was  the  most  remark- 
able of  all,  the  holy  ministers  of  the  gospel  fled  in  gene- 
ral from  their  congregations,  and  left  them  to  die  with- 
out the  benefit  of  prayer  from  the  cross-bearing  cler- 
gy of  that  day ;  but  more  especially  so  the  three  Reve- 
rend gentlemen  who  forbid  the  sailor  to  warn  their 
people,  these  were  among  the  first  of  the  Reverend 
gentlemen  who  fled  from  their  charge:  forgetting  in  the 
midst  of  this  excitement,  that  wise  command  of  the 
apostle  James,  "Is  any  sick  among  you,  let  him  call  for 
the  elders  of  the  church,  and  let  them  pray  over  him." 
And  also  the  same  apostle's  sententious  views  of  pure 
religion  and  undefiled  before  God,  is  this,  to  visit  the 
fatherless  and  widows  in  their  affliction,  and  to  keep 
himself  unspotted  from  the  world.  After  this,  the  alarm 
become  so  great,  that  all  private  business  was  suspend- 
ed :  President  Washington  with  his  court  left  the  city, 
the  bank  officers  and  all  other  kinds  of  public  function- 
aries fled  out  of  the  city;  so  that  all  business  was  stop- 
ped, except  that  of  making  of  rough  coffins  and  digging 
of  graves.  It  was  now  that  the  young  sailor  more 
clearly  understood  what  the  signs  of  the  coffins  and 
white  winding  sheets  were  designed  to  signify,  which 
he  saw  eight  months  antecedent  to  this  awful  calamity. 
The  depopulation  of  the  city  was  so  great,  that  the 
grass  grew  in  the  streets  ;  so  that  by  the  last  of  August 
1793,  more  than  three  fourths  of  its  inhabitants  had  fled 
into  the  surrounding  country.  So  that  it  was  chiefly 
the  poor,  that  had  neither  friends  nor  money  to  take 
them  away,  that  remained  in  the  city  :  and  of  this  small 
balance  of  its  population,  which  in  those  days  could  not 
exceed  more  than  ten  thousand  inhabitants,  yet  out  of 
this  remnant  of  its  inhabitants,  there  died  from  a  hun- 
dred to  a  hundred  and  twenty  per  day  :  so  that  death 
seemed  to  be  written  in  every  countenance.  And  al- 
though the  sailor  lived  out  of  the  city,  and  the  Reverend 

P 


158 

gentlemen  had  all  deserted  the  sheep  of  their  pastures 
when  the  wolf  of  the  yellow  fever  came,  yet  he  went  to 
the  city  more  or  less  every  day,  and  visited  the  sick 
and  dying,  and  as  far  as  it  was  in  his  power  he  admin- 
istered to  their  temporal  and  spiritual  wants.  And  on 
the  Lord's  day  he  went  into  the  city  to  St.  George's 
church  in  Fourth  street,  and  met  an  elderly  brother 
by  the  name  of  Wilmore,  who  with  the  young  sailor  ex- 
horted about  thirty  or  forty  of  their  poor  brethren  to 
put  their  trust  in  the  Lord,  and  although  their  minis- 
ters had  forsaken  them,  yet  the  Lord  was  their  shield 
and  support  in  the  time  of  danger. 

The  month  of  September  came  in,  and  the  yellow 
fever  raged  with  greater  violence  than  ever,  it  was  aw- 
fully distressing  to  the  feelings  of  humanity  to  hear  the 
cries  and  groans  of  the  sufferers  forsaken  by  both 
friends  and  relatives.  This  young  sailor  went  to  the 
chambers  and  beds  of  the  dying  of  many  of  them,  and 
done  what  he  could  to  relieve  their  distress,  and  ex- 
horted and  prayed  for  them,  and  buried  the  dead : 
graves  by  scores  had  to  be  ready  to  receive  the  dead 
corpses,  so  that  early  in  the  morning  of  each  day,  the 
carts  were  going  through  the  streets  of  the  city  in  order 
to  take  out  the  dead.  Those  deistical  gentlemen  who 
came  out  to  his  father's  house,  like  the  lords  of  the 
Philistines  did  in  Samson's  case,  to  make  themselves 
sport,  and  who  also  laughed  at  him,  but  the  amphithea- 
tre of  death,  or  rather  the  awful  yellow  fever  of  1793, 
fell  upon  them,  and  they  made  merry  with  the  young 
sailor  no  more. 

Early  in  September,  a  young  person  by  the  name  of 
Jesse  Smith,  the  same  person  who  in  the  winter  of 
1791,  went  with  Onesimus  from  house  to  house  in  the 
vilage  of  Kensington,  to  pray  and  exhort  the  people  to 
flee  the  wrath  to  come,  was  taken  down  with  the  yellow 
fever.  The  family  with  whom  he  lived  were  so  alarm- 
ed that  they  fled  into  the  country,  and  left  him  to  suffer 
without  any  one  to  administer  those  kind  offices  which 
the  imperious  case  of  his  awful  condition  called  for:  the 
news  of  his  forsaken  situation  was  brought  to  the  house 
of  Onesimus'  father,  and  Onesimus  went  in  haste  to  the 


159 

house,  where  he  found  him  entirely  forsaken  and  lying 
in  a  suffering  condition :  so  he  went  into  the  city,  and 
prevailed  on  Dr.  Rush  to  come  out  of  the  city  and  visit 
him  :  the  doctor  ordered  his  head  shaved  and  an  entire 
blister  to  cover  the  same ;  this  being  done,  and  every 
other  article  and  mode  of  treatment  which  the  doctor 
prescribed  attended  unto,  when  he  stayed  with  him 
and  helped  him  out  and  into  his  bed  as  the  imperious 
nature  of  his  case  required ;  and  then  prayed  and  exhort- 
ed him  throughout  the  whole  night  to  put  his  trust  in 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  When  a  little  before  sunrise 
he  fell  asleep  in  Jesus  full  of  faith  and  with  a  bright 
prospect  of  a  glorious  immortality.  Then  he  went  and 
obtained  a  walnut  coffin,  and  had  him  decently  interred 
in  the  Kensington  burial  ground ;  and  attended  the 
same,  and  exhorted  the  few,  that  followed  his  remains 
at  a  distance,  to  prepare  to  meet  death  and  their  God. 
After  this  his  father  and  family  believing  the  yellow 
fever  to  be  contagious,  prayed  him  not  to  go  so  often 
into  the  city,  as  he  might  be  the  cause  of  communicating 
the  fever  to  the  rest  of  the  family,  so  that  in  order  to 
relieve  their  fears  on  his  account,  he  refrained  from 
visiting  the  city  except  on  the  Lord's  day,  when  he 
went  only  to  a  place  of  worship.  But  still  he  secretly 
wished  if  it  were  the  will  of  providence,  that  he  might 
take  the  yellow  fever,  in  order  to  bid  a  final  farewell 
to  this  sinful  world  ;  as  he  was  led  to  conclude  in  those 
days,  that  his  work  on  earth  was  done,  and  that  as  God 
had  so  exactly  and  most  wonderfully  fulfilled  the  signs 
of  the  coffins,  so  that  Onesimus  was  at  that  time  per- 
fectly reconciled  to  depart  out  of  the  world:  and  as  Paul 
says,  to  be  with  Christ  which  is  far  better ;  and  in  the 
involuntary  language  of  the  false  prophet  Balaam,  to 
exclaim  : — "  Let  me  die  the  death  of  the  righteous,  and 
let  my  last  end  be  like  theirs." 

Through  September  and  part  of  October,  the  fever 
rose  to  its  full  acme,  a  great  many  of  the  physicians  be- 
came the  victims  of  the  yellow  fever  of  1793,  in  conse- 
quence that  most  of  them  were  unacquainted  with  the 
proper  mode  of  treating  the  disorder.    The  distress  and 


160 

melancholy  that  sat  brooding  in  almost  every  counte- 
nance was  really  distressing  to  humanity  to  behold :  and 
here   indulge  us  to  specially  remark,    that  the   new 
French  philosophy  of  eternal  sleep  in  the  article  of 
death,  nor  Paine's  Age  of  Reason,  gave  its  votaries  no 
support  nor  consolation  in  the  approach  and  hour  of 
death :  reader  it  is  only  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  and 
no  other,  that  can  give  buoyancy  to  the  departing  spirit 
as  it  is  about  passing  through  the  dark  valley  of  the 
shadow  of  death.     And  it  came  to  pass,  that  in  No- 
vember, 1793,  after  a  few  heavy  frosts,  that  this  awful 
yellow  fever  subsided :  when  the  people  generally  re- 
turned into  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  so  that  the  different 
places  of  public  worship  were  well  attended  during  the 
winter  of  1793  and  1794.     And  the  drooping  crest  of 
Christianity  once  more  raised  its  head  over  the  vultures 
of  vice  and  infidelity ;  so  that  there  were  for  some  sub- 
sequent years  but  little  rejoicing  in  the  tabernacles  of 
deism  and  atheism.     Those  three  holy  and  magnani- 
mous heroes  of  the  cross,  who  forbid  him  to  warn  their 
people,  were  among  the  first  who  returned  and  filled 
their   pulpits  when   the   danger  was  over  and  gone. 
When  Onesimus  in  the  simplicity  of  his  mind  in  those 
days — was  led  to  draw  this  inference — that  surely  those 
gentlemen  who  forbid  him  to  warn  their  churches  would 
on  their  return  into  the  city,  call  on  the  young  man  and 
make  some  brotherly  or  christian  apology  to  him,  in 
consequence  of  their  unkind  treatment,  and  the  unchris- 
tian discipline   they  exercised  towards  him :   but  no 
apology  has  been  made  to  this  very  unworthy  disciple 
to  this  day,  as  it  seems  those  Reverend  gentlemen  were 
so  most  unmercifully  out  of  sorts  with  the  great  head  of 
the  church,  in  his  passing  by  their  great  ecclesiastical 
hierarchy,  and  selecting  a  poor  young  lad  in  order  to 
employ  him  on  this  dolorous  embassy:  they  acted  in  his 
case,  as  our  Lord  sets  forth  the  conduct  of  the  priest 
and  levite,  towards  a  certain  man  that  went  down  from 
Jerusalem  to  Jericho :  to  wit,  they  passed  him  by  on  the 
other  side. 

And  here  we  will  close  the  log-book  of  the  ship  Per- 


161 

severance,  and  turn  into  our  births,  and  if  the  Lord  of 
old  ocean,  shall  send  a  clear  sky,  under  the  glorious 
rays  of  the  sun  of  immortality,  we  will  write  to  you 
once  more  about  the  coffins  and  also  the  yellow  fever  of 
1793. 

Onesimus. 
To  Elder  Joseph  Maylin. 

Philadelphia,  November  30th,  1793. 


162 


LETTER  XX 


Dear  Sir: 

Our  last  seajgiter  informed  our  much  esteemed  chris- 
tian brot^,  tifrt  the  ship  Perseverance  had  at  last  after 
a  most  boldj|t'-ctfs  and  long  voyage,  made  the  highlands 
of  the  celestial  coast ;  when  the  captain  of  our  salvation 
who  is  also  the  high  admiral  of  the  whole  gospel  arma- 
ment, ordered  the  post  pilot  of  the  city  of  the  living 
God,  to  bring  captain  Onesimus  and  his  ship  Persever- 
ance safe  into  the  royal  city  andlport  of  immortality. 
Or  in  other  words,  he  discovered  to  a  degree  of  cer- 
tainty, the  truth  of  the  gospel  of  the  Son  of  God ;  which 
has  left  him  no  shadow  of  a  doubt  of  the  entire  immor- 
tality of  the  human  soul  after  death. 

And  it  came  to  pass,  that  exactly  eleven  months  after 
the  young  sailor  made  so  public  a  declaration  before  the 
Rev.  John  Mc  Claskey  and  his  whole  congregation,  in 
the  Ebenezer  church  in  south  Second  street,  Philadel- 
phia, in  December,  1792 ;  that  in  August,  1793,  that 
a  year  it  came  and  passed  away  from  off  the  city.  When 
God  sent  the  awful  yellow  fever,  so  that  in  the  space  of 
the  many  thousands  of  its  inhabitants  that  had  fled  into 
its  surrounding  country,  had  mostly  returned  home  to 
the  city,  and  we  ask  a  candid  world  of  intelligent  and 
rational  beings,  we  ask  again — what  act  of  the  overrul- 
ing wisdom,  power  and  providence  of  God — could  be 
more  true  and  conclusive  to  prove,  that  there  is  a  just 
and  holy  God  that  does  whatsoever  he  pleases  in  the 
armies  of  heaven  and  with  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth. 
And  it  came  to  pass,  that  he  faithfully  attended  the 
public  worship  of  God  under  the  three  Reverend  gen- 
tlemen who  forbid  him  to  warn  their  people  against  the 
judgment  of  heaven :  and  it  is  further  our  duty  to  calm- 
ly remark,  that  although  God  had  by  this  young  lad, 
placed  in  the  hands  of  these  holy  ministers  of  the  gospel 
of  that  day,  so  clear  an  evidence  in  the  vindication  of 
the  truth  of  the  gospel  and  immortality  of  the  human 


163 

soul,  against  the  doctrines  of  deism  and  atheism,  which 
were  at  that  time  so  very  extensively  spreading  through- 
out America.  But  notwithstanding  the  prophecy  of 
this  young  man  placed  within  the  range  of  the  mental 
powers  of  those  Reverend  gentlemen  a  most  advantage- 
ous opportunity  to  defend  the  truth,  and  to  warn  their 
fellow  sinners  against  the  awful  sin  of  unbelief,  yet  these 
men  of  God  scarcely  ever  mentioned  to  their  hearers 
the  awful  calamity  of  the  yellow  fever  of  1793.  So 
that  we  reiterate  again,  although  we  by  no  means  ad- 
mire or  recommend  a  writer  to  the  approbation  of  the 
world,  who  is  over  profuse  in  his  use  of  tautology,  yet 
our  duty  both  in  the  sight  of  God  and  man,  forbids  us 
to  refrain  from  remarking  the  excessive  ecclesiastical 
modesty  of  those  humble  and  meek  sons  of  the  church, 
respecting  this  most  notorious  warning  that  the  sailor 
gave  them  of  the  approaching  calamity  coming  on  the 
city,  and  the  exact  fulfilment  of  the  same  ;  there  never 
was  since  the  world  began  an  occurrence  passed  over 
with  such  ministerial  silence  before. 

But  since  it  was  all  passed  over,  and  the  sons  of  the 
church  were  by  the  sparing  mercy  of  God  once  more 
safely  inducted  into  their  pulpits  again,  they  no  doubt 
thought  it  would  be  most  extravagantly  unadvisable  to 
bring  the  sailor's  visions  of  the  coffins  and  winding 
sheets  and  his  prophecy,  either  before  the  church  or 
the  world ;  so  that  in  consequence  of  their  holy  and  pru- 
dential wisdom  in  his  case,  they  viewed  it  best  to  give 
the  whole  affair  an  indefinite  go  by,  which  they  have 
with  the  most  striking  scrupulosity  observed  to  this 
day,  May  30th,  1839.  And  it  came  to  pass,  that  when 
the  sailor  discovered  that  those  Reverend  gentlemen 
were  so  very  shy  of  him,  that  it  caused  a  reaction  on 
his  mind;  so  that  speaking  in  general  terms,  with  a  few 
exceptions,  he  has  ever  since  been  rather  shy  of  the 
gentlemen  in  holy  orders  to  the  present  day.  And  when 
Onesimus  saw  that  the  Lord  had  so  marvellously  brought 
to  pass  all  that  he  Jiad  in  the  name  and  the  authority  of 
his  Lord  and  Master  declared  should  come  to  pass  with- 
in the  year  1793,  when  he  became  fully  reconciled  to 
let  the  whole  matter  die,  and  go  into  the  grave  with 


164 

him  :  and  he  now  wished  to  end  his  days  as  a  private 
member  of  the  methodist  society.  So  that  after  this  he 
turned  his  whole  attention  to  the  business  of  this  world , 
and  strove  hard  to  banish  from  his  mind  all  ideas  of  ever 
preaching  the  gospel.  And  it  were  worthy  to  remark, 
how  the  physicians  and  others  in  the  newspapers  of 
that  day,  endeavoured  to  explore  the  whole  of  the  ani- 
mal and  vegetable  empire  of  nature  in  order  to  discover 
the  latent  cause  of  the  yellow  fever  of  1793  :  but  after 
all  their  deep  reasoning  on  the  subject,  but  few  of  them 
as  Solomon  says,  drove  the  nail  in  a  sure  place.  But 
after  the  fever  of  1793,  he  never  had  any  warning  of 
the  subsequent  fevers  of  1797  and  1798,  any  more  than 
any  other  person :  after  this,  as  we  have  already  observ- 
ed, he  tried  to  banish  from  his  mind  the  spirit  and  de- 
sire of  preaching,  but  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  which 
bloweth  where  it  listeth,  did  not  give  him  up  to  his 
own  desire  in  that  case. 

We  shall  now  close  the  log-book  of  the  ship  Perse- 
verance, in  the  borrowed  language  of  the  apostle  John, 
"  This  is  the  disciple  which  testifyeth  these  things,  and 
wrote  these  things,  and  we  know  that  his  testimony  is 
true."      Amen. 

Suffer  me  to  remain  with  the  most  pro- 
found sentiments  of  respect  to  your 
christian  character, 

Onesimus. 

To  Elder  Joseph  Maylin. 

May  31$/,  1839. 

the  end  ! 


Princeton  Theolog 


Theological  Sennnary-Speer  L 


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